Education Minister Tahir Mamman on Wednesday met with leaders of the Academic Staff Union (ASUU) to avert another round of strike action that the union recently threatened to launch.
The minister said he has set up a sub-committee to look into ASUU's demands and find a lasting solution to them.
On August 22, ASUU issued a 21-day ultimatum to meet its demands or it would go on an indefinite strike.
The union called on the federal and state governments to address all “outstanding issues” hindering the development of the country’s universities, for which it last went on strike for eight months in 2022.
Mr. Mamman, a teacher, and ASUU leaders reached a compromise at the closed-door meeting held on Wednesday at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja, Ministry of Education spokesperson Folasade Boriowo confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday evening.
Ms. Boriowo also revealed that both sides will meet again on September 6 to continue the talks.
Wednesday's meeting substantially eased fears of another ASUU strike, which effectively shuts down Nigerian public universities when it occurs.
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Addressing journalists after the meeting, ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil sciences, expressed hope that outstanding issues would be addressed before the September 6 meeting. Excerpts of his interview were shared with journalists present.
He said: “We have met to discuss all the issues and review them. We have given the government a time frame from now until the prime minister’s meeting to see what they have done.”
“We believe in the interest of the Nigerian child and in protecting their interests if the issues are resolved.”
Ms Boriowo also told PREMIUM TIMES over the phone that the Minister, earlier in the day, inaugurated a 16-man committee to look into the needs assessment of Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions.
Today's meeting
The meeting on Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES has learned, lasted only about two hours at the Ministry of Education.
The meeting, earlier scheduled for Monday, followed a 21-day ultimatum issued by the teachers' union for the government to address their outstanding demands, most of which include better welfare for academics and funding for universities.
The union wants the government to complete the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-Federal Government Agreement and begin implementing it. The union is also protesting the continued use of a centralised payment platform, the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), for the payment of its members’ salaries.
Although Mr Mamman said in December that the university had been banned from the payment platform, ASUU insists that its members are still receiving payments through what it described as 'News IPPIS', which it says is the same as the platform it rejected.
In 2022, ASUU introduced University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS), a payment platform developed for domestication.