CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, on Monday, said there was hope that the strike embarked upon by university lecturers would soon come to an end.
Chukwumerije spoke after the meeting the committee had with Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in the education sector with a view to ending the strike by the university lecturers.
He told journalists after the meeting that they made positive progress during the meeting.
He said, “We all held very cordial discussion and I think we are making positive progress. There were very positive suggestions. The body language of everybody seems to suggest that there would soon be solution to the crisis.”
Asked if there was any commitment from ASUU to call off the strike, Chukwumerije said there was no commitment, but expressed hope that the strike would soon be called off.
“I hope that the strike will soon be called off. I do not know quite frankly when, but I hope it will be soon,” he said.
Although the meeting was held behind closed doors, our correspondent learnt that the committee tried to persuade ASUU to call off the strike, since the National Assembly and the Federal Government were working to meet their demands.
A source close to the committee told our correspondent that the committee told the leadership of the union that it was already working on the bill to alter the retirement age of lecturers.
He said the committee promised to quickly pass the new bill, increasing retirement age from 65 to 70 years for lecturers and professors in tertiary institutions.
It also urged ASUU to find ways of improving the internally generated revenues of the universities to augment what it received from the Federal Government.
Shortly before the closed door meeting, Chukwumerije had asked the Federal Government and ASUU to quickly find an end to the problems in the universities. He said Nigerians had become disenchanted with ASUU and the Federal Government’s handling of the education sector.
He said, “It is the concern of everybody to find solution to the problem in the education sector. There is a mistrust against the government and ASUU have lost public sympathy. Strike action is a drag on our already collapsed education sector.
“Government must learn not to play with people’s intelligence and never to enter into agreement that it cannot fulfill. ASUU must come down from its high academic height for the interest of our education sector.”
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