The Federal Government has reconstituted a seven-member renegotiation committee to address the 2009 agreements with trade unions in the universities.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, who inaugurated the committee on Tuesday in Abuja, gave them a three-month deadline to conclude negotiations.
Members of the committee were drawn from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
In his remark, Mamman said President Bola Tinubu’s government aimed to improve the education system and maintain peace on campuses.
He noted that renegotiations began in 2017 but were delayed because of unforeseen circumstances.
The minister added that the previous committee led by Prof. Nimi Briggs, produced a draft report covering significant areas.
He urged the reconstituted committee to work diligently and produce realistic agreements addressing the challenges facing the universities.
The Chairman of the committee, Dr. Yayale Ahmed, appealed to the government to support universities in achieving global competitiveness and to consider lecturers’ salaries as investments.
The ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, thanked the government and expressed hope that the new committee would succeed where previous ones failed.
He reaffirmed the unions’ readiness to renegotiate provided the government worked towards a stable academic calendar.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on March 7, 2022, set up a committee headed by Briggs to renegotiate the 2009 agreement reached with ASUU.
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The committee set up to review the draft FGN/ASUU Agreement had the following mandates:
i. Liaise and consult with relevant stakeholders to finalise the position of the Federal Government on the issues in the draft proposed FGN/ASUU Renegotiated Agreement.
ii. Renegotiate in realistic and workable terms the 2009 Agreements with other University-Based Unions.
iii. Negotiate and recommend any other issue the Committee deems relevant to reposition the Nigerian University System (NUS) for global competitiveness, among others.
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