By Idris Saidu
365Daily – The Federal Government has assured the House of Representatives that it would address the basic demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) next week.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, gave the assurance at a convened by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, which had representatives the government and ASUU in attendance.
365Daily had reported that Speaker Gbajabiamila had summoned relevant government officials and ASUU after the latter issued a three-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to honour agreements reached in December 2020 or face a strike action.
Among other things, the union demanded the release of N30 billion as part of the first tranche of Universities Revitalisation Fund.
It also asked for the release of N22.12 billion earned allowances of lecturers.
In addition, the union also insisted on the implementation of University Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS) and a re-negotiation of the 2009 agreement between the union and the Federal Government.
The Minister disclosed that the process of releasing the money has begun and the monies would be paid before the end of next week.
She said that the efficiency of UTAS was still being verified by the relevant agencies and would be implemented when concluded.
The Minister added that the process for the commencement of the re-negotiations of the agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU had started.
Eairler, Gbajabiamila said that he called the meeting so that the issues of strike would be addressed once and for all.
Gbajabiamila said that the consequences of interrupting the education process was enormous and that the unintended consequences were more deadly.
“We cannot sit here as leaders and watch things fall apart; education is very important and no amount of money put into it is too much.
“This cannot be a perennial exercise, strike cannot be a tool we use all the time; it should be the last resort after all other efforts have failed.
“We need to resolve this issue once and for all,” he said.
On his part, the President of ASUU, Prof. Victor Emmanuel, informed the Lawmaker that the union had given the government a three-week ultimatum after which it would commence the strike.