The Senate through its joint Committee on Labour, Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, has waded into the ongoing two-week warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The Joint Committee in their efforts to end the ongoing strike by the University lecturers, met with the leadership of ASUU on Friday at the National Assembly and scheduled meeting with the Minister of Education, Mr Tunji Alausa and the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC ), Professor Abdullahi Yusuf Ribadu on Tuesday next week.
Briefing journalists at the end of a closed door session the joint committee had with the leadership of ASUU, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Senator Muntari Dandutse (Katsina South), said the joint committee heard from ASUU about its grievances that led to the industrial action and pledged to engage the exercise arm of governance on their demands.
“After meeting with the national leadership of ASUU on way out of the current strike and the looming indefinite one, we have resolved to convene a very important meeting with relevant government agencies, particularly the Minister of Education and Executive Secretary of the NUC on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
“We also resolved to interface with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on the need to stop action on the proposed review of the Certificate of Occupancy University of Abuja’s land,” he said.
Before the closed door session, the National President of ASUU, Professor Christopher Piwuna,
told the lawmakers that ASUU was demanding the improved funding of Universities by the Federal Government as contained in extant agreements between it and the federal government, as the way out of the present strike action.
Sustainable investment in education according to him, remains the only path to ending strikes and raising the global ranking of Nigerian universities adding that the ongoing two-week warning strike stems from longstanding issues that dates as far back as 2011.
“We engaged the Federal Government for eight years without tangible results. The Yayale Ahmed’s committee report, submitted in December 2024, was ignored until this industrial action began”, he said.
On funding delays, Prof. Piwuna revealed that although the National Assembly approved N150 billion for universities, only N50 billion has been released so far.
Even that amount, he noted, remains stuck at the Ministry of Education, where the minister allegedly intends to share it among universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, despite separate allocations for those institutions.
He cautioned that the N150 billion approved is specifically for universities must be used for the intended purpose.
