FG/ASUU in crucial talks - ASUU may call off strike today

ONE week after the suspension of the about four-month-old industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the renegotiation between the ASUU and the Federal Government to resolve and fine-tune the grey areas of the draft agreement commenced on Thursday, in Abuja.

The Federal Government’s renegotiation team, with the fresh mandate by the Federal Government to conclude negotiation with the ASUU, was led by Deacon Gamaliel Onosode. The team included the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Professor Oladipo Afolabi; National Universities Commission (NUC) Executive Secretary, Professor Julius Okojie and his Education Trust Fund (ETF) counterpart, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, among others.

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ASUU president, Ukachukwu Awuzie, led the team that included the former ASUU president, Alhaji Sule-Kano, in a meeting that began at about 3.30 pm.

ASUU leadership had, last Friday, suspended the nationwide strike for two weeks, following the intervention of the governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, when the talks between the Federal Government and the ASUU collapsed.

The Federal Government had refused to sign a central agreement with the ASUU and directed them to go back to their various universities’ governing councils to conclude negotiation, but ASUU insisted that it would not honour such a directive.

However, with the intervention of Oshiomhole, the Federal Government appeared set to sign the agreement centrally with the ASUU as against its earlier position.

It was gathered within the week that President Umaru Yar’Adua had already given the mandate to the Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, to, in conjunction with the Federal Government’s negotiation team, sign whatever agreement finally arrived at with the ASUU.

The chairman of ASUU, University of Abuja Chapter, Dr. Mallam Abu, had revealed that major issues at stake could be resolved at a sitting and the agreement signed.