FG reaches a partial agreement with lecturers over ASUU strike

The Minister of Labour and Employment,

Ngige made the announcement on Monday, December 10, 2018, in Abuja after the Federal Government representatives met with the leaders of the union.

He said, “we have finished our deliberation for today. I am happy to report that we touched some areas of understanding in implementation from the Memorandum of Action which we agreed to in 2017.

“Some of these areas we have substantial compliance and some other areas have not been fully dealt with.

“Like the issue of shortfall in salaries of some Federal Universities’ workers and lecturers, ASUU has given a list to the Accountant-General’s Office and we have agreed that by Wednesday that list should be cross-checked by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Auditing.

“So, the Accountant-General’s Office is to get back to us by Wednesday.

“We also have the issue of earned allowances, revitalisation, these are issues of 2009 agreement and partial implementation and we have agreed on the modus operandi to look into the fund situation, this is due to low revenue on the part of government. ”

Ngige also said the union and the government also discussed and agreed that state universities should be properly funded and staffed even though education is on the concurrent list.

“We also discussed the issue of state universities and agreed also that even if education is on the concurrent list, the universities should be properly funded and staffed so that we do not produce half-baked students from those universities.

“In realisation of this the Ministry of Education will set up a committee, that would engage the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and the Minister of Education has taken steps in that direction to formalise the interaction.

ASUU strike started on Monday, November 5, 2018, following the union's National Executive Committee meeting at the Federal University of Technology, Akure on Sunday, November 4, 2018.