The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it will not attend a planned meeting with the Federal Government over the long-standing 2009 agreement.
The meeting, scheduled to take place at the National Commission for Colleges of Education in Abuja, was expected to present a counteroffer to lecturers after years of stalled negotiations. However, ASUU President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, told The Guardian that the union was never formally invited.
He insisted that the gathering was solely the government’s event and not a joint session. “Why should we be part of the meeting? We do not even know the agenda, but we suspect it is about our issues,” he said.
The 2009 agreement, which addresses funding for schools, the welfare of lecturers, and university facilities, has been the primary reason for many strikes. Now that ASUU is not part of the talks, hopes of ending the problem may suffer again, and nobody is sure what the government will do next.
