The Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities failed to strike an agreement after 6 hours of negotiations on Thursday and have adjourned till next week.
The closed-door meeting was called to look at the seven points in the Memorandum of Actions that was signed in September 2017.
The issue in the memorandum most at the forefront of the negotiations is the “funding for revitalisation of universities; earned academic allowances; staff schools; pension matters; salary shortfalls, Treasury Single Account exemption; and state universities.”
The ASUU delegation was led by its National President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi while the Government side included Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono; and the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.
Before the meeting, Minister for Labour and Employment, Christ Ngige said “talks with the academic union are coming a bit late because we have been having negotiations on the new minimum wage.”
Ngige said: “The government appeals to ASUU to put the interest of the students first because they are at the receiving end of the consideration.”
After the meeting, Ogunyemi said: “No date has been fixed for next week but we will communicate the date to you tomorrow (Friday). The union was forced to go on strike because our plea for the implementation of the 2017 Memorandum of Action fell on deaf ears.
“Our meeting with the Minister of Education (Adamu Adamu) in May and September 2018 to remind him of the Federal Government’s promises to implement the agreement yielded no result.”