The federal government, on Thursday, stated that the only obstacle to FG-ASUU negotiations was the no-work, no-pay policy.
This was made known by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, during the 47th State House Ministerial Media Briefing, which was held at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja and hosted by the Presidential Communications Team.
The Minister said, “All contentious issues between the government and ASUU had been settled except the quest for members’ salaries for the period of strike to be paid, a demand that Buhari has flatly rejected.”
Adamu further noted that ASUU went on strike, despite the Buhari administration and organizations like TETFUND and UBEC directly investing trillions of dollars in education.
The Minister revealed that, while ASUU’s return to work is still questionable, five of the six university-based unions who are now on strike are likely to do so within the next week.
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He claims that the FG turned down ASUU’s request for payment of the unpaid wages for the previous five months because it feels there should be consequences for their behaviour.
However, Adamu added that discussions about when to end the strike were still taking place among ASUU members.
ASUU embarked on a 30-day warning strike on February 14 over the federal government’s failure to honour the agreement signed by both parties.
The union’s demands include reviewing the lecturers’ condition of service every five years, revitalisation of public universities, and adoption of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as an alternative to the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) for payment of members’ salaries, among others.