STRIKE: ASUU Walks Out On FG As Meeting Ends In Deadlock

The meeting between the Federal Government and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) failed to yield a productive result as members of the union staged a walkout on representatives of the government.

The meeting was held at the headquarters of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and was headed by Professor Nimi Briggs on Tuesday.

Sources confirmed that the FG did not have any new offer for the ASUU leadership and instead just begged them to put an end to the ongoing strike, Punch reports.

The meeting lasted for about three hours and within that time, no agreement was reached.

The meeting was expected to bring a positive outcome as the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, had revealed in an interview earlier this week that if the union’s demands were met, the strike would be called off immediately.

He added that the Federal Government called for the meeting to renegotiate the terms of the ASUU FG 2009 agreement.

The strike, which began on February 14th, is now in its 6th month. ASUU embarked on the strike to compel the government to fulfill its demands which include payment of earned allowances and salaries for lecturers, improved funding and maintenance for tertiary institutions, the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability system (UTAS) for salary payment instead of the government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the renegotiation of the ASUU FG 2009 agreement, among others.

According to Osodeke, the government conceded its request to adopt the use of UTAS as the payment mode for the university staff. He added that should the government agree to meet its demands, the union was ready to call off the strike immediately.

“We have not had any serious communication though they have invited us for a meeting on one issue, tomorrow (Tuesday), which is the issue of renegotiation”.

“The issues of IPPIS and UTAS has been put to rest because the test has been done and it has been agreed with the chief of staff, UTAS will be implemented to cover the university…. If we go into that meeting tomorrow and the government says, what you have bargained for, we are willing to sign, the strike will be called off,” he said.