The team set
up by the federal government to negotiate with the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU), has said dialogue is the most effective way of resolving
the lingering dispute between the union and the government.
University
lecturers across the country are currently on strike, to protest the alleged
refusal of the government to meet their demands.
While
declaring the strike, the national president of ASUU, Abiodun Ogunyemi, had
said the union took the decision due to the poor funding of universities in the
country, failure on the side of the government to honour the memorandum of
understanding (MoU) signed between the union and the federal government in
2017.
But speaking
at a press conference in Lagos on Saturday, Wale Babalakin, chairman of the
panel, said there is need for ASUU to reconsider its action.
“Our
attention has been drawn to the several statements made by Prof. Biodun
Ogunyemi, President of the ASUU and echoed by various zonal heads and other
members of the same union.
“As we had
stated in our previous communication on this matter, we believe that
negotiations are best done on the table rather than on the pages of the
newspapers, hence we have been very reluctant to respond to the campaign of our
co-negotiators.
“Our
position is that dialogue on the same table is the most effective way of
resolving issues.
“Unfortunately,
we are compelled to respond to the allegations by ASUU which have been made in
the print and electronic media because some Nigerians may begin to believe the
inaccurate narratives that have been consistently provided by ASUU.
“Our
position as a team is that Nigerians deserve and should have quality education.
This must not be compromised as a result of inadequate funding which has been
the situation in the last 30 years,” he said.
Babalakin
also said government would need over N2trillion to meet the demands of the union.
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