The federal government of Nigeria has stated that it has reached an agreement with members of the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
The minister of Education, Adamu Adamu made this known at a reconciliation meeting with Executive members of ASUU, officials of the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders on Thursday in Abuja.
According to him, the two most contending issues were the allowances and the revivalisation of the universities system.
“I think we have already reached agreement on one and I hope we will be able to reach agreement on the other,” he said shortly after the meeting.
Also, speaking after the meeting, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said that the meeting was convened to resolve rough edges to enable the union call off its strike.
According to him, strike is approaching one month and that it is adversely affecting the academic calendar of the universities.
“So the major essence of our reconvening today is to see that areas of mistrust are broken down between the government side and yourself so that we can have some kind of bargaining agreement on the way forward, so that the school system will come back to life.
“The children can take their exams, degrees or promotional exams,” he said.
He noted that there are urgent issues at hand that were mandatory for all to fashion out ways of resolving them. Ngige said that reconciliation meeting was recognised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and that there was need for to dialogue.
“If there are impediments we will all put heads together and resolve them.
“By God’s guidance, we will assist in making life better for our students and lecturers, parents and the entire people of Nigeria,” he said.
Also, Mr Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU president commended the ministers for the observations on the letters that were exchanged between the union and the government.
“We have conveyed the position and feeling of our members on the issues in contention via a letter dated Aug, 28 and we were also in receipt of government’s position in response to our letter.
“Our members have also come with open mind in that government will play its own part to reassure our members that their observations are going to be attended to,” he said.
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