ASUU Strike: Senate wades in, meets Education Minister Tuesday
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By Henry Umoru
The Senate has moved in to nip in the bud, the lingering problem between the Federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and as part of moves to stop the ongoing two-week warning strike.
The Senate Committees on Labour, Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND will be meeting with the Minister of Education, Mr Tunji Alausa and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission ( NUC ), Professor Abdullahi Yusuf Ribadu, on Tuesday next week.
The planned meeting with the Federal Government and NUC will come after today’s meeting with the leadership of ASUU at the National Assembly.
Speaking with journalists on Friday in Abuja on resolutions adopted 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, APC, Katsina South, said that the committees had heard from ASUU and were very ready to address its grievances to the appropriate quarters.
He said, “After meeting with the national leadership of ASUU on the 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 NUC on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
” We also resolved to interface with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT, Abuja ) , Barrister Nyesom Wike on the need to stop action on tampering with University of Abuja land.”
Earlier, before the closed-door meeting , the National President of ASUU, Professor Christopher Piwuna, told the committee members that ASUU improved funding of the University by the federal government, as contained in earlier agreements between it and the federal government, is the way out of the 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 date as far back as 2011.
He said, “We engaged the Federal Government for eight years without tangible results. The Yayale Ahmed committee report, submitted in December 2024, was ignored until this industrial action began.”
On funding delays, Prof. Piwuna, who revealed that although the National Assembly approved N150 billion for universities, only N50 billion has been released so far, said that the amount 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 specifically for universities must be used for the intended purpose.
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