Nigerian youth wait as Asuu and FG holds meeting

The Nigeria youh are waiting patiently once again, to hear what the outcome of the meeting today between ASUU and the federal government, it looks like all this meetings are becoming too much, because there has not been any significant positive result since the issue of the strike started.

THE Federal Government has set machinery in motion to return the striking university lecturers to classes, as Ministry of Labour will, today, hold an emmergency meeting with the representatives of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to finalise talks on point of their grievances.


The ministry had, on Tuesday, placed emergency calls to the ASUU leaders for the meeting to be headed by the Minister of Labour, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode (SAN), who would not attend the Federal Executive Council meeting at the presidential villa(today) in order to attend to the ASUU delegates.


Adetokunbo made this known in Abuja as he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Labour, disclosing that the Federal Government had no problem meeting the demands of ASUU, having graciously conceeded to the lecturers’ demands.


He said the government had been good to the lecturers by agreeing to grant total autonomy to the Nigerian universities, accepting that lecturers should retire at age 70, fund the universities as well as increase the salaries of ASUU members as contained in their four-point demands.


The labour minister said it was ASUU that was playing hard to get by rejecting the 40 per cent increase in the salaries of lecturers while the union stuck to 109 per cent increase


The minister told the House of Representatives members that the government bowed to the demand by ASUU for salary increase by offering a 40 per cent lift, disclosing that while the Federal Government would pay as much as N105 billion to off-set the lecturers’ salaries, ASUU was insisting on taking nothing less than N175 billion.

All this talk is getting too much, yes we know dialogue is needed, but it becomes irrelevant, when there are no positive outcomes, How long do we have to wait more?