The Federal Government says it would be meeting with Pro-Chancellors, Vice-Chancellors, and Chairmen of Councils in a bid to build a consensus toward bringing the lingering strike action embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to an end.
The Deputy Executive Secretary of Administration at the National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki, disclosed this in a letter to top university officials on Tuesday.
This is even as the ASUU has announced an indefinite extension of its strike action embarked on since February 14, 2022.
ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, insists that the strike actions have become an important move to save public universities.
But Maiyaki believes otherwise.
“It has become necessary for the Governing Councils and the management of the universities to be briefed on the decisions and actions taken by the Federal Government so far to allow for a well-coordinated review of the situation including building consensus around succeeding actions,” Maiyaki said.
“Consequently, I am to invite the Pro-Chancellors & Chairmen of Councils as well as Vice-Chancellors of Federal Universities to a special interactive meeting with the Honourable Minister of Education on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.
“As the Pro-Chancellors and Chairmen of Councils and the Vice-Chancellors are quite aware the industrial action by university-based unions has led to the closure of the institutions since February 2022,” the letter read.
Recall that non-teaching unions suspended their strikes on August 24, 2022.