The Federal Government is expected to hold another emergency meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Monday in a bid to end the ongoing strike in public universities.
Recall that the last meeting between the two parties took place on November 15 which was deadlocked, despite the meeting lasted for six hours and the universities have been under lock and key since November 5.
However, it was gathered on Sunday that the meeting would again focus on the issues in the 2017 Memorandum of Action, which the union claimed the Federal Government had neglected.
From a copy of the FG/ASUU 2017 agreement obtained by the Punch, the issues still under contention are the funding of public universities, earned academic allowances, salary shortfalls and pension matters.
The President of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, in an interview with our correspondent on Sunday, confirmed the union’s meeting with the Federal Government would take place on Monday.
Mr Ogunyemi said, “There is supposed to be a meeting tomorrow evening, Monday. It all depends on the way government approaches it. If they invite us further, we will go. It also depends on what they put on the table. We met them briefly and we agreed to meet on Monday, today.
“We met with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on Thursday and it was a short meeting. We have given them our terms. I am not representing myself but those who have given us a clear mandate and we shall abide by the terms.”
The Federal Government’s delegation led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, in their meeting with ASUU leaders on November 15 appealed to the union to consider the interest of the students and end the strike.
