ASUU Strike Update: Lecturers To Meet With Lawmakers, Ministers On Monday
The update on ASUU Strike that commenced on 1st July, 2013 is that representatives of University lecturers will on Monday, meet again with Lawmakers and Ministers to try to resolve the issues surrounding the ongoing strike.
Here is the new as reported by Premium Times:
Striking university lecturers will on Monday hold a crucial meeting with federal lawmakers and ministers, their leader has said.
The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Professor Nasir Fagge, told PREMIUM TIMES the union would meet with the members of the joint National Assembly education committee on Monday.
Monday’s scheduled meeting follows the walk out by the university lecturers from an earlier one on Tuesday. The Tuesday meeting was attended by members of the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Education, as well as the ministers of education and labour.
The lecturers said they were kept waiting for over two hours by the lawmakers and they had to leave because they had another appointment.
“The meeting was slated for 1:00 p.m. When we arrived, we met two people there – a member of the house committee on education and Executive Secretary for National Board of Technical Education. We waited for 30 minutes and were told to go and wait at the office of (Senator) Chukwumerije. We left the complex around 3:30 p.m. because we were going to attend another meeting slated for 3 p.m.,” Mr. Fagge told PREMIUM TIMES.
“They (NASS members) called yesterday (Wednesday) to say the meeting has been rescheduled for Monday.”
The don, however, refused to say if the outcome of the meeting would affect the strike in any way.
“I don’t act on speculations. I like crossing my bridge when I get there. We cannot say. If we do, it means we’re not attending with an open mind. Our union is a union of intellectuals; we engage in dialogue with an open mind. We would decide on the next course of action after the meeting.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Fagge said the union does not owe the legislator any apologies for Tuesday’s failed negotiation. The lawmakers had described the lecturers as “snubs” for allegedly walking out on them.
“It is arrogant of them to snub us knowing that this meeting is in the interest of our children. I suggest that a strong-worded letter be written to the union to tell them that we are not happy with their action,” said House of Representative member, Jerry Alagbaoso (PDP-Imo).
However, Mr. Fagge said they never met the legislators so it was wrong for them to say that ASUU representatives walked out on them.
“How can you walk out from a meeting if you’re not in the same place with the other party?” he asked. “Unless my understanding of English is faulty, you can walk out on somebody when you’re at the same place at the same time. They were having their meeting in the committee’s room; we were at Uche Chukwumerijie’s (senate committee on education chairman) office. They kept us waiting for two hours thirty minutes. How could we have walked out on them? So, if we didn’t walk out on them there is no basis of demanding for an apology,” he said.
ASUU declared an indefinite strike last Tuesday based on the refusal of government to honour the terms of a 2009 agreement and a 2012 memorandum of understanding it signed with the lecturers for improved welfare and increased funding for universities.
Via : Premiun Times
