Strike: ASUU Rejects Fresh Inauguration Of Renegotiation Committee By FG

Efforts to entice members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, or ASUU, back to the bargaining table may have encountered a snag, when executive members of the striking union refused to attend the inauguration of the federal government’s 7-man committee to revise their existing agreements.

The inauguration ceremony conducted at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja on Monday was a one-sided affair, according to an Anaedoonline.ng correspondent who was there.

The committee was inaugurated by Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, in the presence of Abubakar Rasheed, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission NUC, and members of the renegotiation committee, which includes Prof. Emeritus Nimi Briggs, Pro chancellor, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, who is serving as chairman.

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The Minister gave the committee three months to renegotiate all previous agreements with ASUU, particularly the 2009 agreement.

ASUU had previously said that they would not participate in any new discussions, especially since the last ones had failed.

Although ASUU is still observing its month-long warning strike, part of the conditions that necessitated the strike involves disagreements in the implementation of the Integrated Personnel Payrolls and Payment System IPPIS, including the universities revitalization funds which run into several billions of naira.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige who briefed President Muhammadu Buhari about the ongoing strike recently, alleged that ASUU and its members have drawn over N90 billion from the government coffers.

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Beyond the battle of wits between the two parties, academic activities in the nation’s universities remain comatose.

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