The minister of education, Prof Ruqayyatu Rufa’I, has said that the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will be resolved on Monday after several deliberations with the federal government, saying that the last deliberation will hold on Monday.
The minister, who said this during the visit of all vice-chancellors from federal universities to her office, said the federal government was concerned about the development.
She added that the federal government had had several meetings with members of ASUU which was chaired by the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF).
ASUU had in November last year, called on its members nationwide to shun classes, saying that the strike was to ensure that the federal government did what is right in terms of qualitative education in tertiary institutions.
She said, ‘We have been talking and discussing with our members of ASUU and today after our meeting with the vice-chancellors, we are going to meet again with ASUU on Monday and it is our desire and hope that after the meeting, ASUU would call of the strike because government is working and we are meeting most of their demands.’
The Senate had on Wednesday passed a bill extending the retirement age of lecturers from 65 to 70 years as a way of addressing the demands of ASUU. But the nationwide strike by the organised labour took centre stage early this year which prevented the issues of the ASUU strike from being addressed.
Rufa’i also said, ‘Even yesterday, we had the passage of the retirement age from 65 to 70 years and very soon, the president will sign it into law because there are no issues that will allow ASUU strike to linger further. ‘When we meet with our colleagues on Monday, I believe we will arrive somewhere’.
But the national president of ASUU, Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie, has faulted the claim of the education minister in a telephone interview LEADERSHIP.
According to him, ASUU knows little or nothing about the stance of the minister on the issue. He said, ‘We are not aware of it. The minister will have to tell us what she has been able to do within the few days after we had met. They are not to dictate to us when the strike will be called off. Some papers have said in two weeks time and she is saying next week Monday. We are not aware of such.
‘Remember that we are not going for negotiations but for implementation. The agreement they signed with ASUU has to be reached and except that is done, I don’t see why she will say that ASUU will call off strike on Monday.
We are not asking for all of the money in one day but we need to be sure that the demands are met’.
No comments:
Post a Comment