By Audrey Lotechukwu
WED, 09 DEC, 2020-theGBJournal- The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) abruptly called off their scheduled meeting with Federal Government (FG) today, dashing hopes of thousands of undergraduate students who were priming for resumption of learning after sitting idle for nearly 10 months at home.
The President of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi was quoted as saying that the meeting was called off because the time frame given to the Union to consult its members is too short.
The Union leaders met with representatives of the Federal Government led by Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige on November 27th for the seventh time to finalize talks to end their protracted strike. Several concessions were made by the Federal Government including the pledge to release N70 billion funding for Nigerian Universities. The FG also agreed to settle the arears of salaries of the lecturers before December 31.
ASUU was expected to report the agreement to its organs and then communicate their decision to the government after which a date for calling off the strike would be announced.
Today’s action by ASUU signals continued thaw in the negotiation process with the Federal Government and a big setback for the students in Nigerian Universities that have effectively lost one academic year to the dispute.
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