President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday raised a fresh panel to revisit the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on Tuesday at a meeting with Pro-chancellors and Vice Chancellors in Abuja.
He said the committee is made up of four Pro-Chancellors and four Vice Chancellors, while he is the chairman.
The minister said the panel is to look into the additional demands ASUU is making particularly the areas where there has not been consensus.
The minister said he would brief Buhari on the outcome of the meeting.
Malam Adamu, “Government should not, in the guise of resolving current challenges, sow seeds for future disruptions.”
“For me, the past two weeks have been a very dark period of personal anguish and internal turmoil. I used to deceive myself that in a climate of frankness, and with mutual goodwill, it will fall to my lot to bring an end to the incessant strikes in the education sector. This has not proved possible – or, at least, not as easy, quickly and straightforward, as I used to think,” he said
The minister, however, noted that the statement by ASUU president that the Union would no longer negotiate with the current Federal Government must be resisted.
He said: “Government and ASUU have no option than to continue talking, until our Universities have reopened their doors to students who, clearly, are the principal victims of the seemingly unending strikes. In the circumstances, therefore, all Councils and Senates of our Universities are enjoined to rise up to their responsibilities.”
“We must, together, continue to work to restore our public universities to where they were in the 60s and 70s. As the most important officers in our university system, Pro Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors, must demonstrate more commitment to ending the ongoing strike.”
ASUU began a one-month warning strike on February 14, 2022, and extended it four times after the Federal Government failed to meet up with its demands.
Some of the demands of ASUU include: revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability.
The Federal Government agreed to inject a total of N1.3 trillion into public universities, both state and federal, in six tranches, starting in 2013 after the union decried the deplorable state of the institutions.
In 2013, the government was to release N200 billion and release N220 billion each year for another five years.
After releasing the first tranche, the government stopped releasing the funds. In 2017, it, however, released N20 billion. In 2020, it promised to release N25 billion.
ASUU rejected the offer, insisting on N110 billion, which is 50 percent of the N220 billion that it demanded, but the government declined, citing paucity of funds.
