Adamu Adamu, the minister of education, has been given two weeks by President Muhammadu Buhari to settle disagreements relating to the Academic Staff Union of Universities strike (ASUU).
In a meeting with the minister and other interested parties on Tuesday, July 19, the president issued the order.
The minister is set to update Buhari on the situation in two weeks, according to sources at the meeting.
The minister of labor and employment, Chris Ngige, is apparently required to attend all meetings between the federal government and the union as per the president’s instructions.
Besides the directive to the education minister, President Buhari instructed that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, as well as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, must be in attendance in all the meetings to speedily resolve the crisis.
Those present at the meeting include Adamu, Ngige, and Mustapha, as well as the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; the Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; the Chairman of National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta; and the Director-General Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.
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President Buhari’s directive comes a week after he told the striking university lecturers that ‘enough is enough’ and should as a matter of responsibility reconsider their position on the prolonged strike with a view to calling it off.
ASUU commenced a nationwide strike on February 14 over the adoption of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) of the government as the payment system in the university sector.
Members had also decried the poor funding of universities, non-payment of salaries and allowances of some of their colleagues, as well as the inability of the government to pay earned academic allowance to lecturers, among other issues.
Since the industrial action began, several negotiations between the union and the government have ended in deadlock.
