The Federal Government has assured that its face-off with the Academic Staff Union of Universities would soon end as all but one of the issues have been resolved.
While describing the strike as unnecessary, the government said there are other ways of getting things done.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, stated these in an interview with journalists in Abuja after monitoring the Professional Qualifying Examination organised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria.
Echono said, “The government is working very closely. We are very concerned and the President is very concerned about this protracted (ASUU) strike which, to so many of us, is unnecessary. We believe there are other ways of getting things done.
“There’s a shared acceptance of so many of the issues and we are at a point that very quickly and soon, it will be resolved. There’s only one issue in contention. The other issues have either been resolved or there has been some kind of compromise that worked out.
“We believe that reason will prevail and the overall national interest will be the guiding principle in coming to a quick resolution. I can assure you that work is going on assiduously in this.
“Only two days ago, the ASUU executives were at the Ministry to meet with the Minister for certain consultations and we felt we needed to tell them exactly what our positions are.
“We will look at the overall interest of the Nigerian people. We know that we also operate in a context of government playing out different segments even in the University setting.
“We have four different unions making demands and we have to balance this. We understand the peculiarities of ASUU and we believe the members are patriotic enough to know when to call it quits and what to call a compromise.”
ASUU had on March 24, 2020, embarked on an indefinite strike over the failure of the Federal Government to fulfil the 2019 agreement; the lingering disagreement over the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System and other factors.
Culled from Punch
