President Muhammadu Buhari met with the Chairman and some members of the Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities, promising to have additional meetings with stakeholders in order to end the university lecturers’ strike.
The lecturers have been in strike since Febuary 14, whoiuch is the second prolong strike in about 2 years.
On September 12, the Federal Government took the union to the National Industrial Court and the case has been further adjourned by the court on Friday.
The President, who met with the Pro Chancellors at the Presidential Villa, said he will discuss and interact with them further without necessarily reversing previously established policy.
Professor Nimi Briggs led the Pro-Chancellors to the meeting.
Despite the shadow cast by more than seven months of strike action, he believes “the future of the university system in the country is promising,” citing the recent inclusion of the University of Ibadan among the top 1,000 universities in the world.
Raise salaries by 23.5% for lecturers and 35% for professors
Professor Briggs praised the Federal Government for already making concessions to the striking lecturers, including a promise to raise salaries by 23.5% for lecturers and 35% for professors.
He did, however, request a “further inching up of the salary, in light of the country’s economic circumstances.”
The Pro-Chancellors also requested that the government reconsider its No-Work, No-Pay policy, assuring that professors would make up for lost time as soon as an acceptable solution was reached and schools reopened.
Goodluck Nana Opiah, Minister of State for Education, said all concessions made by the Federal Government were to ensure that the strike ended, but ASUU has stayed adamant.
Reporting by Bello Wakili; editing by Hadiza Abdulrahman, Omotola Oguneye and Saadatu Albashir