President Muhammadu Buhari has given a marching order to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to resolve the ongoing Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) strike action within two weeks and report back to him.
President Buhari, who gave the order on Tuesday in Abuja, maintained that the industrial action by the ASUU since February should be resolved quickly.
Buhari’s meeting at the Presidential Villa with some ministries and agencies of government was meant to brief him and discuss how to negotiate with the striking university workers to end the strike.
At the meeting with Buhari were the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Mr. Ngige; the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; the Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; the Chairman of National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, and the Director-General Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.
It was reliably gathered that after President Buhari was briefed at the meeting by all the relevant ministries and agencies ordered the Minister of Education to ensure that the impasse was resolved within two weeks.
Mr. President also ordered that he Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, must be part of the negotiation team.
It would be recalled that other university unions, including the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), also joined the industrial action by ASUU to demand better welfare conditions for their members.
Asking for improved university funding, ASUU embarked on the prolonged strike after accusing the Federal Government of reneging on previous agreements with its members.
