Nigerian public universities are set reopen after eight months of lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Mallam Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education, gave the assurance on Wednesday, December 2, at the inauguration of the reconstituted government team on renegotiation of the 2009 agreement with ASUU.
Adamu noted that progress had been made in talks geared towards ensuring an end to recurring issues.
The Minister condemned the industrial actions, which have affected the university circle over the years.
“The federal government and relevant stakeholders, in the past months, have been neck-deep in several meetings with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and others, to resolve the outstanding issues that led to the current industrial action in public universities.
“Although most of residual issues were part of the comprehensive agreement reached with the previous administration, I can report that significant progress has, so far, been recorded and there is an opportunity that our public universities, like their private counterparts, will soon reopen for academic activities”, he said.
He then called on all stakeholders and the general public to play their part in efforts to restore confidence in university education.
Professor Emeritus Munzali Jibril led the team categorised into substantive members, advisers and observers.
The body is tasked with the responsibility to propose and prescribe short, medium and long-term measures for the sustainable funding and management of federal universities.
Besides, it will take another look at the 2009 agreement and work with each union towards a workable and implementable agreement between both parties.
The team is expected to make any other recommendations to ensure the realistic implementation of future agreements, by all stakeholders.
