Friday 20 September 2013

Breaking News: Presidency takes over ASUU negotiation

*Makes proposal to ASUU
*ASUU agrees to consider Presidency’s Position
at its NEC When Scan-News reported exclusively that
some top elder statesmen had intervened to
resolve the ASUU strike, it seemed far-fetched.
But less than two weeks after that report, the
fruits of the diplomatic efforts are coming to the
fore. The private steps taken by the elder statesmen
and top government officials have yielded
positive results as President Jonathan on
thursday mandated VP Namadi Sambo to inter-
face with the ASUU leadership and quickly
resolve the strike. In an interview after the meeting at the State
House, the ASUU President, Nasir Fagge, said
that he was taking back a “message given to
him at the meeting for his members” and that
Nigerians would have to wait for the response
of his members on the way forward. “We have had a meeting with the Vice
President and he has given us a message to our
members, and we said that as the messengers
that we are, we are going to deliver the
message faithfully to our members and then
they will take the decision.” He said, “I know Nigerians are expecting a
solution to the strike, we also want a solution,
but I have been given a message to our
members. The message is not for Nigerians, it is
for our members”. “If I deliver the message, our principal will
decide and we will get back to the ministry of
education within this week,” he added, saying
the union would get back to the education
minister on its stance on the government’s
latest offer.” This is the first the ASUU President has back
tracked. The elders across the country who
intervened during the meetings that SCAN-
NEWS reported asked ASUU to respond to the
good faith that the government has shown. Scan-News learnt that the Supervising Minister
of Education, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike
faciliated the take over of negotiation by VP
Sambo, after he deployed his political contacts
at the Presidency to ensure that the President
gave the directive. Wike also met with Committee of Vice
Chancellors on thursday whom he convinced to
play a more visible role in resolving the strike. A
vice chancellor from the North West who
attended the thursday meeting told Scan-News
that the meeting was the very first time that Vice Chancellors have been taken in confidence
and given the mandate to work to resolve the
crisis in the shortest possible time. The VC told Scan-News in confidence: “The
Supervising Minister’s style is pragmatic and it
always yields results. Just imagine how he has
re-awaken a dead process. We are optimistic
this matter will be resolved since the highest
level of government is involved”. Officials who attended the meeting at the
President maintained a sealed leap on the new
offer by the Jonathan administration. However,
it is said to be an improvement on the
N100billion for infrastructure and N30billion for
earned allowances. The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom
Wike, who was also at the meeting, explained
that the meeting had been convened to find a
lasting solution to the crisis. “One is quite hopeful that ASUU is committed,
they have the passion and that there is the
need for us to move the education sector
forward. “ASUU coming to discuss means that they are
committed on their own part and that the
federal government is also committed. We have
gone very far, we believe that in no distance
time, you will have a very good result,” he said. Also on the ASUU delegation were two former
Presidents of ASUU, Dipo Fasina and Abdullahi
Sule-Kano. Other members of the government’s
delegation included the Executive Secretary of
the National Universities Commission (NUC),
Julius Okojie; as well as the Vice Chancellors of
Bayero University Kano (BUK), University of
Ibadan (UI) and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, Abdulrasheed
Abubakar, Isaac Adewole, and Muhammed
Muhammed respectively. Nigerians are eagerly awaiting the ASUU
leadership and members to declare their
position on the President’s proposal after their
next meeting.

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