FG, ASUU Holds Third Reconciliation Meeting;Solutions Proposed By ASUU Are Unrealistic – Ezekwesili

Nigerian Government, University Teachers Begin Meeting

 The meeting on resolving issues involved in the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is ongoing in Abuja with representatives of the government and the Union attending.
At the third meeting in the series, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said several meetings had been held by the government side to resolve what he called the two contentious issues ahead of the Thursday meeting with ASUU.
“We are here to smoothen the rough edges so we could move forward ,” Mr. Ngige said.
The two contentious issues the minister referred to are earned allowances for the lecturers and revitalisation fund of universities.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, expressed optimism that the two parties will reach a compromise on the issues so that universities can reopen.
On his part, President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, said once the contentious issues are resolved, the union’s leadership team will reconvene its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting for further discussions.
The minister of Labour had declared the business section of the meeting open.

FG, ASUU Holds Third Reconciliation Meeting

The Federal Government is holding another reconciliation meeting with officials of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Abuja.

According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the meeting which was earlier scheduled for 11:00 am today (Thursday), has just begun.
The adjusted time was to afford some key players expected at the meeting a little break, following a similar meeting with the National Association of Resident Doctors, which ended this morning.
The Minister assured the striking lecturers that the meeting will treat areas of mistrust between the workers and the Federal Government so that the strike can be called off.
In his response, the ASUU president expressed optimism that the industrial action would be called off as soon as the government shows its commitment to addressing the concerns raised.
READ ALSO: SSANU, NASU To Start Indefinite Strike On Monday
ASUU has been on strike since August 14, over unpaid arrears and demands for improved infrastructure in the universities.
A reconciliation meeting with the Federal Government August 17 had failed to resolve the dispute, but fresh undisclosed offers were made to the lecturers.
Another reconciliation meeting held on August 29 also ended in deadlock, as ASUU insisted on seeing the government act on their demands.
The third meeting, however, comes a day after the non-teaching staff unions of Nigerian government universities resolved to embark on an indefinite strike.

File photo

They are demanding the immediate payment of earned allowances, as well as a review of the universities governance system.
Rising from a Joint Action Committee meeting of non-teaching unions in Abuja, the leadership directed their members to down tools with effect from Monday, September 11.
The meeting was attended by members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT)

Solutions Proposed By ASUU Are Unrealistic – Ezekwesili

Former minister of education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, says the solutions recommended by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to the Federal Government in resolving the issues raised by the union are unrealistic.
This comes a day before the government held the third reconciliation meeting with the leadership of the union since ASUU commenced a nationwide strike.
ASUU has been on strike since August 14, over unpaid arrears and demands for improved infrastructure in government universities across the country.
A reconciliation meeting with the government on August 17 had failed to resolve the dispute, though fresh undisclosed offers were made to the lecturers.
Another reconciliation meeting held on August 29 also ended in deadlock, as they insisted on seeing the government act on their demands.

file photo

Ezekwesili, who appeared on Wednesday during a special programme on Channels Television, said the solutions proposed by ASUU in addressing its demands were unreasonable, considering Nigeria’s present economic state.
“I think that the issues that ASUU raises concerning improving the university system are very germane to what you need to discuss in an economy and society like ours. I find the solutions, however, rather unrealistic,” she said.
“The reason that I maintained that the solutions proposed by ASUU are unrealistic is because I do not think that we have had the kind of conversations that would enable us to solve structural problems in a structural way.”
– Key Issues To Tackle –
On her experience as an education minister, she said conversations between ASUU and the government had completely broken down by the time she was appointed in 2006.
She, however, said, “One of the first priorities that I gave to myself, even though it was hardly a year before government was going come to an end, was a to work with ASUU in a strong partnership to really get a good grasp in an analytical and empirically driven manner, the issues we needed to tackle.”
“And some of these issues were clearly not just funding issues, the funding is the tail end of the story. The key issues that you needed to deal with; you needed to discuss issues of governance and structure of the university system in the country in terms of partnership, in terms of participation in the tertiary education in the country.”
Ezekwesili further highlighted the role of each stakeholder in the sector including the government, in order to develop Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
She said, “We needed to look at the issues of faculty, key to the performance of any university system is academic distinction and scholarship, as well as academic research.”
“We needed to get a grasp of what kind of quality of faculty did you need in an emerging economic environment, in order to enable the kind of learning outcomes that would make the product of education relevant to the widest society especially the economy.”
The former minister also stressed the need to invest in technology and infrastructure in the universities, noting that it would go long way in improving the tertiary education system.
“You needed to look at the deployment of technology, you needed to look at the physical infrastructure in the university system; you needed to look at issues of resource accountability and performance, and many other issues that are important.
“In looking at all of that, you will be guided by a lot in terms of benchmarking, in terms of analytical comparabilities, and you also need to understand that the conversation with ASUU has always been on the basis of a unionised approach,” she said.