Again, ASUU, FG yet to agree as meeting postponed to next week

Tuesday's meeting between striking university lecturers and the
federal government delegation did not resolve any of the contending
issues, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.
At the penultimate meeting last week, the government's delegation had
setup a sub-committee headed by the Benue State Governor, Gabriel
Suswam, to review the areas of controversy in the 2009 agreement
between the lecturers and the government.
While the lecturers, members of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, insist on the full implementation of the 2009
agreement, the government wants a renegotiation of some parts of the
agreement.
Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday's meeting, the President ofASUU,
Nasir Fagge, said the meeting was postponed because the sub-committee
did not finish their task and so there was "nothing much todiscuss."
He confirmed that the meeting had been adjourned to Tuesday next
weekand explained that ASUU was not part of the sub-committee.
Mr. Suswam had said last week that the ASUU strike could be called
offin two weeks when his committee, which is same as that set up the
federalgovernment on the NEEDS assessment of universities, completes
its task.
The committee has already recommended an immediate ingestion of
aboutN1 billion on capital and educational projects in six chosen
universities across the six geo-political zones, a project expected to
launched by President Goodluck Jonathansoon.
Mr. Suswam and the federal government have repeatedly appealed to the
lecturers, whose strike entered its sixth week, to call off the
strike.
However, the ASUU president, while reacting to the appeals of students
and the government to call off the strike while negotiations continue,
said,"If the government does what is right, the strike will be called
off tomorrow; So it is in the hands of the government."