Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Tuesday, staged a walk during its meeting with the Prof. Nimi Briggs led renegotiation committee.
A member of the union, who spoke anonymously, said the aggrieved lecturers walked out of the meeting as no new offer was made by the committee.
According to the member, the Prof. Briggs committee only begged the union to end the strike without meeting its demands.
“The meet with the FG’s team was headed by Professor Nimi Briggs and it started by 12:00pm and ended by 3:00pm. There was no new offer on the table, they simply begged us to call off the strike”, the official told newsmen.
A top official of the ministry said with confidence that the lecturers walked out of the meeting, rejecting what the ministry offered them.
“The lecturers left angrily, though we cannot really ascertain what was discussed with them as you can see, we were not invited, but the proposal presented was rejected”, the official said.
Also, a member of the ASUU National Executive Committee labeled the government as “unserious” with the negotiations.
The official said there was no hope in sight as the government was not ready to save the situation.
“They are not serious. I can’t go over the details with you because the president is responsible for disseminating the information. The proposal presented was unreasonable. There is no hope in sight”.
On his part, the ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke told said the meeting didn’t go well.
‘‘It wasn’t good. We didn’t sign anything; they did not come with anything good. I can’t go into details. We will talk to our members first before we talk to the press. We represent our members.’’
Though, another meeting was presided over by Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, no tangible headway has been reached.
Meanwhile, the ministry of education is expected to do a press briefing on Thursday to educate the public on the state of things.
Recall that ASUU has been on strike since Monday, February 14,2022 owing to the failure of the government to meet some of the lingering demands of the union.
