FG to hold ’emergency meeting’ with ASUU to avert another strike

Nigeria’s federal government is poised to hold an “emergency meeting” with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the union’s threat to embark on a fresh strike action.

The spokesperson of the ministry of education, Ben Goong, said in a statement, on Monday, that the meeting is billed to be held Tuesday by 11:00 a.m. at the education ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

Quoting education minister Adamu Adamu, the statement noted that “the said the meeting is intended to nip the strike in the bud.”

The academic staff union had issued a strike warning over unmet agreements between it and the federal government. The lecturers accuse the government of failing to honour the agreement reached in January that made the union call off its nine months strike then.

Already, data analysed by this newspaper has shown that Nigerian universities have been on strike for a year for every five years since 1999.

During the entire period, Nigerian lecturers went on strike 15 times for about 50 months.

Successive Nigerian governments have struggled to meet the demands of the university lecturers, which their critics say is sometimes unrealistic. Agreements reached during negotiations are mostly not fully fulfilled.

This has continuously pushed the teachers to down tools before another round of negotiation completes another cycle.