President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to engage in further consultations with relevant stakeholders towards ending the protracted strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The President said this on Friday when he met with the committee of pro-chancellors of federal universities, at the State House in Abuja.
In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President said he was determined to ensure that the university lecturers returned to the classrooms.
Buhari said, without necessarily going back on what is already established policy, “I will make further consultations and I will get back to you.”
The Pro-Chancellors were led to the meeting by Professor Nimi Briggs, who said they had come to meet with the President in three capacities: “As President and Commander-in-Chief, as father of the nation, and as visitor to the federal universities.”
Citing the recent listing of the University of Ibadan among the first 1,000 universities in the world, Briggs said “the future of the university system in the country is good,” despite the seven-month industrial action.
He commended the federal government for concessions already made to the striking lecturers, including the offer to raise salaries by 23.5 per cent across board and 35 per cent for professors.
He, however, asked for “further inching up of the salary, in view of the economic situation of the country.”
The Pro-Chancellors also asked for a reconsideration of the “No-Work, No-Pay” stance of government, promising that lecturers would make up for time lost as soon as an amicable situation was reached, and schools reopened.
In his remarks the minister of state for education, Goodluck Opiah, said all the concessions made by the federal government were to ensure that the industrial action came to an end, but ASUU has remained adamant.
