FG, ASUU TO RESOLVE STRIKE ON THURSDAY

The Federal Government will on Thursday hold a meeting with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to resolve the lingering strike in the nation’ s universities .

ASUU President , Prof . Biodun Ogunyemi , confirmed on Tuesday that he had received an invitation to a meeting at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Abuja .

Also , the National Association of Nigerian Students has issued a two -week ultimatum to the Federal Government to resolve the ASUU strike .

The group , on Tuesday , threatened violence if the government failed to prevail on the union to call off the strike .

Speaking to one of our correspondents on the telephone , Ogunyemi said the ASUU negotiating team would be at the meeting to hear what the government had done so far in respect of the seven demands tabled for implementation .

He stated , “We have a scheduled meeting on Thursday ; we received the invitation today (Tuesday ) . We would be at the meeting . We go to every meeting with open mind and also believe the government will come with open mind and if they ( government officials) mean well , we will resolve the issue. ”

The don said he did not envisage any problem , adding that the government would be expected to highlight the demands it had implemented and to give a time frame on the ones that would be implemented subsequently .

“ Our demands are clear , seven issues with timelines . They are expected to have started implementing them ; we don ’ t see much problem here .

“ They will just tell us how far they have implemented them and tell us which ones they cannot implement for now , and give us the time frame ( for implementation ), ” Ogunyemi stated .

Asked if the government had released the N 23 bn it promised last month to the universities , the union leader said he did not know if this had been done .

But NANS factional president , Haruna Kadiri , who led his group on protest to the Ministry of Education, Abuja on Tuesday , over the strike , stated that students bore the brunt of labour dispute between university lecturers and government .

This , he noted , made them unattractive to the labour market which he said often preferred graduates from private universities who concluded their academic programmes within stipulated time.

Kadiri said , “ We are here to demand to know when the strike would be called off. The government has not been tackling the issues that led to the strike , but politicising them and dividing the ranks of the lecturers .

“ As researchers , ASUU should carry out research and find solutions to the issues instead of going on strike .

“ We are issuing a two - week ultimatum for the strike to be resolved . If after the ultimatum, the FG and ASUU didn ’ t resolve the strike , the next protest will not be peaceful . We would carry out civil unrest and we are ready to be detained in the guardroom . ”

The student leader also condemned the new cut - off marks for university and polytechnic admissions as announced by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board , describing the cut - off marks as retrogressive and ‘ anti - education . ’

The Permanent Secretary , Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono , who addressed the students , assured them that the government was working to resolve the crisis .