Femi Gbajabiamila, Nigeria’s Speaker of the House of Representatives has promised to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari in an effort to end the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff of Union of Universities, ASUU.
The university teachers have been on strike since February 14 this year and have promised not to go back to work until their demands are met by the federal government.
The Union and the government are currently in court after negotiations broke down, as students remained at home not sure when academic activities will return to campuses.
The Speaker, on Thursday, after a meeting with the leadership of ASUU and other top government officials urged the lecturers to go back to work while the parties involved worked out modalities on how to resolve the crisis. The lecturers refused.
Apart from ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, those in attendance included the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha; the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Sen Chris Ngige; Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Sylva Okolieaboh; the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, amongst others.
Speaking after the meeting the Speaker said he will meet with the president next week to intimate him of the outcome of the meeting with ASUU.
He said whatever decision taken on the issue will be in the interest of Nigerians, appealing to ASUU to put the students first.
Gbajabiamila said: “We will put together our recommendations and our thoughts and take it to Mr. President, that’s why we are here to interface and look for solutions.
“Again let me repeat, we are running a government, nobody, no individual, no group, whether you are legislative, judiciary or whatever can be above the government, can be above the law.
“We can’t be against and I’m speaking specifically to ASUU, we did not say because the court has given judgment, that’s the end of our conversation. In spite of the court judgment, we are still looking for solutions, we didn’t even address it here, I don’t want to address it.
“Otherwise, we could’ve said, if government has given judgment, I don’t know if there’s a stay of execution, I don’t know.
“We are appealing to you, the Judiciary has spoken, the Executive has spoken, the Legislature is about to speak together with the Executive; everybody cannot be wrong and only one person is right. For me I’m happy with the solution on UTAS, no victor, no vanquished, everybody is being carried along.
“For the sake of emphasis, the House is pleading with you, let’s put all interest aside and look at the interest of our children.
“The white paper we told you we’ll get, the letter is here, it’s now waiting for the President’s final approval.
“On revitalization, I asked the DG budget here if provision has been made in the budget. We made a promise to you, and we are staying by that promise.
“Regarding the issue of UTAS, you said you haven’t seen the report; we have it here, so we’ve been working for you”.
The belief among not a few Nigerians particularly students and parents who are facing the short end of the stick is that the issue between the union and the federal government cannot be resolved in court.
