Speaker of House of Representatives,Right Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila on Thursday brokered a peaceful parley between the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to avert pending strike in public universities in Nigeria at the end of the three-week strike deadline issued by the union
The fresh parley which involved the Minister of Finace, Zainab Ahmed and Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba in Abuja, agreed that government would release N30 billion of the N220 billion tranche of the 2009 revilisation fund of the universities
The meeting also considered the payment of the union’s Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) standing at N22 billion to prevent future strikes.
It will be recalled that ASUU had issued a three-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to honour agreements reached or the union would commence a strike.
The union had demanded the release of N30 billion as part of the first tranche of Universities Revitalisation Fund.
The union also demanded the release of N22.12 billion which is to be paid to its members as earned allowances.
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.
But addressing the meeting, Zainab said the process to meet the demands of the union had commenced and that the monies would be paid before the end of next week.
The minister explained that the efficiency of UTAS was still being verified by the relevant agencies and would be implemented when concluded.
She 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.
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