The Federal Government delegation and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are meeting behind closed doors to discuss the ongoing issue and avert a union strike.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the meeting began at 4.30 p.m. on Thursday in the office of Education Minister Prof. Tahir Mamman.
The federal government’s delegation includes the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, and other key ministry officials.
The ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, who led the union’s delegation, told reporters that the meeting was to discuss outstanding concerns affecting universities to avoid scheduled strike activities.
"There are several outstanding faults with the system, and we believe they would have been addressed sooner.
'The concerns would have been resolved by President Bola Tinubu’s commitment, and there would be no strike in the university system.
“We hope that this meeting will help to settle some of these difficulties so that we can go forward as a country and as a university system,” he said.
Earlier, Minister of Education Prof. Tahir Mamman stated that the meeting will allow both parties to exchange ideas on challenges impacting the university system.
Mamman stated that ASUU has already written to the government, outlining several difficulties and concerns impacting universities and the union.
He stated that the difficulties necessitated talks between the union and government authorities to avoid a union-led strike.
According to NAN, the closed-door meeting is still happening as of the time of this report.
ASUU had threatened a nationwide strike over the federal government’s refusal to meet its demands.
Osodeke has asked the government to act within two weeks to meet all remaining demands from the union.