By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Relief may be on the way for striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as the Nigerian Government has constituted a panel to look into the ‘no work, no pay’ policy currently being implemented.
The university lecturers say they have not been paid salaries since they embarked on strike in February, an action that has brought economic hardship on them and their dependents.
But in what appears to be a ray of hope, the Nigerian Government says the Committee was set up after a meeting by the Minister Of Education, Adamu Adamu along with Pro-Chancellors, Chairmen of Councils as well as Vice Chancellors of universities.
Also discussed at the meeting which held behind closed-door, was efforts to bring to an end the seven-month industrial action by lecturers of public universities which has seen the tertiary institutions locked down.
The Director Press and Public Relations at the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, disclosed this to journalists after the meeting which lasted for over two hours.
He said the committee is to also look into issues of increase in the salaries of the university lecturers and come up with workable solutions.
Earlier, the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) had urged the Federal Government to increase the salary of university professors to N800,000 as against the N1.2 million negotiated by the Nimi Briggs committee.
This will represent a 50% salary increase offer as against the 23% increase being proposed by the federal government.
The committee also set up a sustainable peace team of elders to resolve the lingering impasse between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
This was confirmed by the Secretary-General of CVCNU and Co-ordinator of the team, Professor Michael Faborode, on Tuesday in Abuja through ‘The Sustainable Peace Team Working Paper’.
Faborode said that the goal of the team was not to allow the current impasse in the ASUU strike to prolong as its toll on all stakeholders and the nation had been colossal.
