ASSU Strike: FG sets up committee to review ‘No Work, No Pay’ decision; Union rejects 23.5 % salary increase offer; IPAC chair doubt if ministers tell Buhari truth

The Federal Government has set up a tactical committee to review its ‘no work, no pay’ stance against the striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

This followed a meeting by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; with Pro-Chancellors, Chairmen of Councils as well as Vice Chancellors of universities, held behind closed doors as part of efforts to resolve the seven-month-old industrial action by the lecturers of public universities.

The Director of Press and Public Relations at the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, who disclosed this to journalists after the meeting which lasted for over two hours, said that the committee is to also look into issues of increase in the salaries of the university lecturers and come up with workable solutions.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu while outlining the Federal Government’s efforts to resolve the industrial action at a press conference in Abuja, said that the government had offered the union a 23.5 percent salary increase “for all categories of the workforce in Federal Universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35% upward review.”

He said that ASUU and three other university unions have however rejected the offer, describing it “as inadequate to meet their respective demands needed to tackle the challenges confronting the university system.”

Meanwhile, Alhaji Yabagi Sani, the chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), has doubted if President Muhammadu Buhari is being fed with the truth about the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Sani lamented that for the past seven months, ASUU has been on strike, with students of universities roaming the streets of the country.

Speaking in an interview, Alhaji Yabagi Sani appealed to the Federal Government to find a way to resolve the issue.

According to him, President Buhari gave a matching order to the minister of education to solve the matter and come back to him within the shortest time, but few days later, the minister of education said the President did not give him that order.

He doubted if the President was passionate and committed to moving the education of the children forward.