The long awaited meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and
the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who have been on
strike for over 4 moths ended at about 3:30am on Tuesday 11th of November 2013.
The meeting, even though was said to have lasted over 12 hours at the
Presidential Villa in Abuja seems to have rounded off without a said concrete commitment
from the union members.
Dr.
Nasir Isa Faggae, the current president of ASUU, told State House correspondent that the
delegation was taking back an ‘undisclosed message’ to their members following
which a decision will be taken on the union’s next line of action.
“We
have had a lengthy meeting with Mr. President, rubbing minds on how best to
address the problem of university education in this country. We now have a
message from Mr. President that we are going to take to our members and we are
expecting that our members will respond appropriately to his message,” he said.
He refused
to disclose any information on what new offers the federal government had made,
stating that the message was meant for members and he would not reveal it to
the press. He also warned journalists from misquoting him and insisted that
only ASUU members will determine if the President’s message was impressive
When
asked whether he will call his members to return to the classroom, he said that
decision was left for members to take.
Although
Chief Emeka Wogu, the current Minister of Labour, after listening to Faggae’s
encounter with the press added that progress was made during the discussion.
“We made progress. The President of ASUU told
you that they are going back with a message from the Federal Government back to
their members and the message is full of high expectation and hope.” He said
“Our
prayer is that they will come back with positive outcome. They might even not
come back to meet us. They might take decision there that will meet your
expectations ”
When asked whether ASUU will call off the
strike, the minister said that was why he described the message as full of
expectation.
He also
added that the offers made by the government during the meeting were offers
that were in line with the 2009 agreement and since the issues that led to the
strike bothered on the 2009 agreement, the government did not go beyond that.
The President
was joined at the meeting that started at 2.40pm on Monday by Vice
President Namadi Sambo; Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim; Supervising Minister of
Education, Nyesom Wike; and Wogu among others.
Faggae
led the union team which included past presidents such as Prof. Abdulahi
Sule-Kano, Prof. Dipo Fashina and Prof. Festus Iyayi.
Also in
attendance was the current President of the Nigeria Labour Congress,
Abdulawahid Omar and that of the Trade. Union Congress, Bobboi Kaigama.
Other
members of the delegation were Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, Prof. Victor
Osodeke, Prof. Suleiman Abdul, Dr. Victor Igbum and Mr. Michael
Odunmoraye.
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