The Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Wednesday started a new re-negotiation on the 2009 agreement.
The Chairman of the Federal Government re-negotiation team, Dr. Wale Babalakin, made this known in Abuja.
He spoke with journalists shortly after a meeting of the two parties.
The meeting lasted about six hours.
Babalakin who disclosed that ASUU team had presented some issues to be tackled, expressed the hope that the problems confronting the university system in the country would be addressed adequately.
His words: “We resumed our renegotiation today. The government team and ASUU were appropriately represented and we had positive discussions.
“We are actually hopeful that we are on a positive path to finalising the negotiation.
“There were very hectic discussions on topical issues and both sides had extensive contributions for the benefit of the university system.
“It is the same negotiation, we had interim discussion, that is over now and we are back to where we left off. So it is a continuous negotiation.
“ASUU submitted its timetable today and there are more than 20 issues in that timetable, it is not a single issue, but they will all be discussed.’’
It would be recalled that ASUU, led by Abiodun Ogunyemi, called off a strike which lasted about three months in February.
They embarked on the protest following the refusal of government to address issued bordering on the revitalisation of the universities, allowances and universities pension management companies among others.
Speaking after the meeting that saw ASUU calling off the strike, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige said: “We have dealt with all the eight contending issues and some of them have been implemented. ASUU has a licence for the Universities Pension Management Company since January 28, 2019.
“On the issue of salary shortfall in the universities, the Federal Government has released N16bn, out of which N15.384bn is for universities, while the rest is for other tertiary institutions. The Vice Chancellors have acknowledged the receipt of the funds.
“We also have a committee to liaise with state government-owned universities, ASUU and the Federal Government through the Ministry of Education. That committee was inaugurated two weeks ago.
“The visitation panel has been constituted and will commence work on March 2, 2019. On the issue of Earned allowances, the Federal Government has released N20bn for the payment to all categories of university staff. For the Earned academic allowance, the Federal Government has released N25bn and for the revitalization fund, a total of N25bn will be released in the period of April and May 2019 and will resume full implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding entered into in 2019.”
