ASUU Strike: Union Remain Adamant Even After Senator Chukwumerije's Plea

                                           
I wonder where this is leading us and what will become of our University students and all the institutions
affected by the ongoing strike.

The strike duration has entered another fresh week yet no head way has been made as regards its call off or a positive outcome of the negotiation meeting between the Federal government, the Senate and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to when the affected students are to return to school.
                            
The meeting which was held yesterday, Monday over the industrial action embarked by University lecturers ended without compromise.

According to a source, the meeting which was at the instance of the chairman, Senate Committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, PDP Abia North, was called to pacify the striking lecturers with a bid to finding a common ground but all efforts to push for a call off of the strike proved abortive as members of ASUU stood their grounds.

The source also revealed that the Senator was literarily on his kneels for over seven hours pleading with the lecturers to consider the plights of the students and call off the strike, but ASUU members refused to shift ground.

However, Senator Chukwumerije did not spare the executive arm of government for foot-dragging in honouring the agreement it entered into with the union since 2009.

 “It is a puzzle to Nigerians that it has on three occasions required the extreme action of withdrawal of services by ASUU to compel the attention of the government to the necessity of honouring 2009 agreement.

 “Why endorse an agreement in the first instance if you had no intention of honouring it? Wherein then lies the basis for mutual trust?”, he asked.

 He also took a swipe at the ASUU leadership for increasingly inclining to what he described as “self-righteous certitude.”

Among the attendees at the meeting were; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Minister of Education, Professor Ruquayyatu Rufai, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie and members of the Senate Committee on Education among others.