FG,ASUU MEETING,STUDENTS HAVE HOPE NOW 

IT seems an end to the prolonged strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may be called off as the body and the Federal Government have come to a reasonable agreement. Rising from a three-hour closed-door meeting held at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Friday, both parties achieved reasonable success in the negotiation as all issues except two were agreed on. The Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim was at the head of the FG team along with the Education and Labour Ministers while ASUU’s team was led by its President, Dr Nasir Isa Fagge. Briefing journalists afterwards, the Chairman, University Needs Implementation Committee, Gabriel Suswam said,
“we agreed on all major issues except the issues of funding of the Universities or rather intervention and then the allowance of the University Lecturers. We believe that by next week the other issues would be resolved. Then, ASUU would probably call off the strike.” The Benue State Governor added that the SGF is meeting on the issue of earn allowance on Monday while his committee, which is dealing with the Needs assessment implementation, would be meeting on Thursday to assess all the infrastructural deficits in the Universities. “We are involving all the agencies that fund the universities - the CBN and all others. As soon as the two issues are resolved, we believe that the strike would be called off.
“The issues of retirement age, setting up a pension administrator, setting up of budget monitoring unit, persuading companies to set up research centres, among others, have being agreed on,” Suswam said. “We agreed that all the funding agencies would meet on Thursday and we chart a way forward,” he noted. Although the Chairman of ASUU refused to speak to the press in an obvious show of dissatisfaction, a source within ASUU said they did not expect the Federal Government to bring all the cards on the table at once so they are still keeping their fingers crossed for next week when their demands would be exhaustively tackled. “For now, the strike continues indefinitely,” the source said. Earlier, in a bid to put up appropriate conditions necessary for academics in all tertiary institutions in Nigeria, the Federal Government has inaugurated the Universities Needs Implementation Committee, with a mandate to prioritise requisite exigencies.