184 days after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on an indefinite strike to press home their demands, there seems to be no end in sight as all their meetings with the Federal Government (FG) end in a deadlock.
The Union and the Federal government held a closed door meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. Although the details of their discussion was not made public, ASUU announced a continuation of the Strike.
However, A senior member of ASUU, who craved anonymity said members of the Briggs renegotiation committee did not come with any new offer on the table, they rather, pleaded with the lecturers to suspend the ongoing strike, with promises that their concerns would be included in the 2023 budget.
According to the source, the meeting, which started at about 12pm, lasted for about three hours without any agreement reached
Earlier, President Muhammadu Buhari gave the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu a two-week ultimatum to address the demands of ASUU.
However, the two weeks elapsed three weeks ago, yet, nothing was done to forestall an extension of the strike by one month, which started on August 1, 2022.
ASUU, on February 14, 2022 embarked on a nationwide strike action to press their demands which included renegotiation of the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement, payment of Earned Academic Allowance, Revitalisation Fund, payment of withheld salaries and adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) approved by the Federal government.
