ASUU: FG launches visitation panels, whitepaper committees
Following a week into the one-month warning strike proclaimed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Federal Government has put up with a step towards settling one of the pressing charges by the union.
Recall that ASUU, after its two-day National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, undertook the four-week warning strike to dispute the non-implementation of a 2009 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached with the government.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, yesterday, declared the setting up of 21 panels to draft the white papers for the reports of visitation panels earlier delivered to Nigerian tertiary institutions to survey their activities.
ASUU had requested the release of white papers on the reports of the panels constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2021 to visit 88 tertiary institutions across the country. It bemoaned that many months after the submission of reports to the government, the whitepapers were yet to be released.
The panels, which were constituted based on ASUU’s request, submitted their reports to the education minister in August 2021.
While receiving the report, Mr. Adamu, who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Chukuwuemeka Nwajiuba, pledged that government would give reasonable attention to the suggestions included in the reports.
Meanwhile, the ASUU of Federal University Dutsin-Ma (FUDMA), Katsina State, has enlisted in the one-month nationwide warning strike.
According to the chairman, Dr. Jibrin Shagari, this was decided after the union’s last congress on Wednesday, February 16, within the premises of the university.
Management of the institution, he claimed, had tried to curtail the congress, a situation that compelled the union to hold the congress under a tree.
According to him, the Vice Chancellor of FUDMA, Prof. Armayau Bichi, and the union had been informed of the development.
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