The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Wednesday hailed the Senate Committee on Education for its role in trying to resolve the face-off between the union and the Federal Government.
The National President of the union, Dr Nasir Fagge, made the commendation in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Lagos.ASUU had on July 1, embarked on an indefinite strike over the non-implementation of some issues contained in an agreement it entered into with the Federal government in 2009.
One week into the strike, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufai, appealed to the striking lecturers to reconsider their stand and go back to work, pending the resolution of issues involved.
The Senate Committee on Education also called ASUU for a meeting on Tuesday, towards a resolution of the issues--but it could not hold.
Fagge told NAN:``I sincerely want to appreciate the efforts of the National Assembly in its role at ensuring that it gets the executive arm of government to do what it is supposed to do on this issue.
Our meeting with the Senate Committee on Education that was slated for Tuesday July 9, could not hold because of some pressing issues that needed urgent attention.
The meeting has now been moved to Monday, July 15, when we are expected to deliberate on several issues that are related to the general development of the sector’’.
Fagge said he looked forward to the meeting with the legislators and hoped it would help in resolving the issues which led to the strike.
I am confident that the National Assembly will seize this opportunity in prevailing on the executive to do what they are supposed to do so.
``I hope that at the end of the deliberation, we would have cause to be happy and get ourselves back to work.
