With the recent meeting between Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government ending in a deadlock on Tuesday, the Union says the strike continues.

The meeting which was presided over by the Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu lasted over four hours with the National President of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi and leaders of the union were in attendance.

Both parties failed to reach an agreement again at the meeting held on Monday, November 26.

Aside from the education minister, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Sunny Echono; representatives of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and that of the National Income, Wages and Salaries Commission, were part of the Federal Government delegation at the meeting.

The nationwide strike started early Novemebr by ASUU in a bid to protest the poor funding  of Universities after a meeting of the national leadership held at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, the Ondo State capital.

The union had also accused the Federal Government of planning to increase students’ fees and introduce an education bank, as well as non-implementation of previous agreements.

A day after the union announced the strike, Professor Ogunyemi accused the government of making cheap promises, saying their members would not be swayed by such.

“We have concluded that promises from the government are very cheap. We are not bothered about what promises the government makes now,” he had said during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

Reacting to the development hours later, the government through the minister appealed to the union to call off the ongoing strike.

“As the Minister of Education, I feel your pain; I share your concern and I am willing to go to any mile so that together we can change the narrative of this country for the better,” Mr Adamu had said at a news conference.

He added, “I want to use this opportunity to appeal to ASUU to put off this strike in the name of the country, and in view of what the situation is. Come, let us continue the talk; it is something that we have already started.

“And I am optimistic that dialogue will produce better results. For us to negotiate under the pressure of strike, we will end up producing the kind of agreement we had in 2009, which almost all stakeholders have agreed is not easily implementable.”

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