By Aminu Kutama
President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a committee to look into the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
This followed a meeting by the Minister Of Education, Adamu Adamu; with Pro-Chancellors, Chairmen of Councils as well as Vice Chancellors of universities.
The meeting held behind closed-doors was part of efforts to resolve the seven-month industrial action by lecturers of public universities.
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.
Ben, said the committee is made up of four Pro-Chancellors and four Vice Chancellors, while the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu is the chairman.
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.
The spokesman for the ministry did not give a specific timeline for the 14-man committee. He, however, said the committee is expected to come up with its findings in no distant time.
He said the committee’s report will be forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari for action.
The union has been on strike since February over the revitalisation of public universities, payment of earned academic allowances and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for payment of university lecturers’ salaries, among others.
As a result of the strike, the government had invoked the ‘No work, no pay’ policy, insisting that the lecturers would not be paid for the period they stayed away from work. An action that the lecturers had kicked against.
