Minister of labour and employment, Dr Chris Ngige announced on Monday that the federal government had reached a partial agreement with the leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over their nationwide strike.
Ngige made the announcement on in Abuja after the federal government’s deliberations with the representatives of the union.
“We have finished our deliberation for today. I am happy to report that we touched some areas of understanding in implementation from the Memorandum of Action which we agreed to in 2017.
“Some of these areas we have substantial compliance and some other areas have not been fully dealt with.
“Like the issue of shortfall in salaries of some federal universities workers and lecturers, ASUU has given a list to the Accountant-General’s office and we have agreed that the list be cross-checked by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Auditing…We also have the issue of earned allowances, and revitalization. These are issues of 2009 agreement and partial implementation and we have agreed on the modus operandi to look into the fund situation, this is due to low revenue on the part of government,” Ngige said.
Ngige also said the union and the government also discussed and agreed that state universities should be properly funded and staffed even though education is on the concurrent list.
“We also discussed the issue of state universities and agreed also that even if education is on the concurrent list, the universities should be properly funded and staffed so that we do not produce half-baked students from those universities.
“In realisation of this, the ministry of education will set up a committee, that would engage the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and the minister of education has taken steps in that direction to formalise the interaction.”
ASUU strike commenced on November 5, 2018, following the union’s National Executive Committee meeting at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, on Sunday, November 4, 2018.
