The Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, will on Thursday
hold a crucial meeting with the federal
government.
Thursday’s meeting, if held, will be
exactly a week since the lecturers
refused to show up for a meeting with
the government delegation saying such
meeting was “unnecessary.”
This Thursday’s meeting is at the
instance of the ministers of labour and
education and was communicated to
ASUU in early hours of Thursday,
PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
Persons expected to be at Thursday’s
meeting are the Minister of Labour, Chris
Ngige, and the Minister of Education,
Adamu Adamu.
The President of ASUU, Biodun
Ogunyemi, confirmed Thursday’s
meeting to PREMIUM TIMES.
“We just received the notification of the
meeting,” he said in a telephone
interview on Tuesday morning. “Until
Thursday, that is when we can say what
would happen but we have
been invited for the meeting.”
A National Executive Council meeting of
ASUU held last week had reviewed the
government’s initial offer to some of the
demands of the lecturers. At that
meeting, the lecturers resolved to
proceed with the strike which
commenced on August 13.
According to a top ASUU official who
pleaded anonymity, the lecturers rejected
the federal government’s offer sequel
due to lack of “trust.”



“Lecturers were not comfortable with the federal
government’s offer because previous promises failed,”
the source said, seeking anonymity as he was not
authorised to talk to the media. “So, it was better to
solve all once and for all, so as not to be deceived
again.”
The federal government had reportedly offered to pay
N23 billion and a monthly payment of N1.5 billion
pending the outcome of the forensic audit being carried
out by the Ministry of Finance on various universities.
Some of the demands of the lecturers include payment
of shortfall in salaries, universities to be allowed to
manage their internal revenue independently and
exemption of universities from the Treasury Single
Account.


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