By O.V Collins
Four months after academic activities of government-owned universities nationwide were crippled, the Federal government and the striking lecturers of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are yet to arrive at a solid agreement that will put an end to this anomaly in the Nigerian university system.
ACJ_UNIBEN learned that a meeting held today between ASUU and the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee has ended without a concrete compromise. The Briggs committee and striking lecturers plan to reconvene within 24 hours to consider a draft agreement and make decisions.
The meeting was held on Monday at the Nigeria University Commission (NUC) in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Although members reached some agreements with the Federal Government, but they had to take a break and reconvene within 24 hours to consider the new terms in the draft agreement, says a senior member of the union who was present at the meeting.
ACJ_UNIBEN also learned that the committee led by Professor Nimi Briggs was set up by the Federal Government on March 7, 2022 to renegotiate the 2009 ASUU/Federal Government agreement within three months and to bring an end to the university lecturers ongoing industrial action.
READ ALSO: ASUU vows to punish universities non-complying with ongoing strike.
Even after the three months deadline, the committee reportedly met with the striking lecturers and still failed to reach a solid agreement that could put an end to the strike that has crippled academic progression of universities nationwide.
ACJ_UNIBEN reports that ASUU commenced a nationwide warning strike on February 14, 2022 over the FG’s adoption of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) as the universities’ payment system, poor funding of universities, non-payment of salaries and allowances of some of its members, as well as the inability of the government to pay earned academic allowance to lecturers, among other complaints.
Several negotiations between the union and the federal government since the strike began, have ended in deadlock, ACJ_UNIBEN reports.