FG, ASUU Agree To Renegotiate - Minister

THE Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday in Abuja resolved to renegotiate the terms of agreement on the union’s demands, which led to its ongoing strike.

The Minister of Education, Dr Sam Egwu, made the announcement while briefing newsmen on the latest government’s efforts at resolving the crisis.

“The major unresolved issue in the renegotiation process appears to be the signing of the Provisional Draft Agreement,” he said.

Egwu said the Provisional Draft Agreement would be renegotiated and returned to the principal parties for them to sign.

He explained that ASUU had insisted that by the provisions of the power of Collective Bargaining, the Federal Government, through the Renegotiation Committee, must sign the agreement.

The Federal Government, he added, could only go into agreements with its own federal tertiary institutions, stressing that ASUU currently composed of staff members from state and federal universities.

Egwu said any agreement entered into with state institutions was illegal, “because the Federal Government will not commit any state government, since education is on the concurrent list in the constitution”.

He noted that the laws on federal tertiary education institutions stated that only Councils were the employers of university staff, “and by extension, only the various Councils can sign binding agreements on behalf of each institution’’.

The minister stressed that government’s offer on the entire renegotiated package was hinged on the fact that there should be unqualified commitment on the part of the staff unions.

He added that ASUU was expected to respect the sanctity of the regular university academic calendar, “which we all must strive to return to and maintain”.

He said the renegotiated package specified that ASUU must commit itself to the primacy of dialogue and due rocess “over and above those tactics which undermine and disrupt good order in the conduct of university business”.