The federal government has reacted to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) planned nationwide strike.
The government begged ASUU to shelve its strike, assuring that all outstanding issues will be addressed.
The assurance was given by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, during a press briefing on Wednesday, noting that President Bola Tinubu has the political will to meet the demands of the union.
He added that President Tinubu has directed that all necessary efforts must be put in place to ensure that university and other public tertiary institution students remain in schools and the school doors remain open for activities.
Alausa submitted that there is no basis for the proposed ASUU strike, as their grievances are already receiving attention.
The Minister disclosed that by Thursday, the Yayale Ahmed-led Federal Government Tertiary Institutions Expanded Negotiating Committee would meet with the leadership of ASUU to present the government’s offer to them.
He revealed that the committee has reached out to ASUU and other unions in tertiary institutions to start giving dates and times when they will meet.
“The directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to us is that our children must be in school; that we should do everything humanly possible to avert a strike. That’s why what we’ve been working behind the scenes to ensure a holistic resolution of the issues. We’ve not been talking about everything we’re doing.
“People at the highest level of government have been working several hours intensely to get a robust but affordable response back to our trade unions. These are issues that predate 10-15 years ago. They’ve not been surmounted, but this President has given us the political will to resolve these issues once and for all.
“In the past, things were done in silos. There were three different Negotiating Committees that were set up. One for universities, one for polytechnics and one for the College of Education and those committees worked in silos. That’s not an efficient way to negotiate.
”Despite the slight delay that we’ve had in putting the Expanded Committee together, we now have one Negotiating Committee that will talk with all tertiary institutions. That same committee will negotiate with academic staff and non-academic staff unions so that they can have a full grasp of what their needs are.
“I have seen all the requests from all these unions at the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education; 80% of those requests are about the same, while the 20% of the requests are based on particular needs of the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education,” Alausa said.
Alausa disclosed that the expanded negotiation committee was inaugurated on Monday and that the members held their inaugural meeting on Tuesday.
He appealed for calm on the part of ASUU, assuring that the government is committed to resolving all issues, stressing that the contending issues have been ongoing for about two decades.
“And as I’ve said repeatedly, we will resolve it in a holistic, comprehensive manner that is mutually respectful to the unions in an affordable manner. Something the government can afford,” he said.
The Minister noted that the government had commenced the implementation of the demands of the lecturers and other staff unions, saying the current administration of President Tinubu released ₦50 billion Earned Academic Allowance some months ago.
He added that N150 billion was allocated in the 2025 budget as a revitalisation fund for tertiary institutions, while the issues of promotion arrears would be captured in the 2026 budget.
