Students will smile in November � FG, ASUU

INDICATIONS emerged on Tuesday that the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may have agreed to end their face-off.

The meeting between the Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike and ASUU, led by its president, Dr Nasir Isa Fagge, held behind closed-door, was said to be productive.

Both parties came out from the meeting beaming with smiles, an indication that some compromises had been made, though they refused to speak with journalists.

Nigerian Tribune, however, gathered that ASUU had presented its position on some of the grey areas in the agreement to the minister.

While the minister was to convey this to President Goodluck Jonathan for approval, ASUU was to convene its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, where decision on suspension of the about four-month-old strike would be decided.

Sources also told the Nigerian Tribune that the minister had already briefed the vice chancellors on the implementation of some of the issues agreed upon, as they held a closed-door meeting on Monday.

Also, on Tuesday, Vice President Namadi Sambo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, met with Wike and other stakeholders in the education sector, in a move to end the strike.

In the brief meeting was the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie; the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Isaac Adewole, among others.

It was not known however whether ASUU was represented at the meeting.

It was not also known what was discussed at the meeting, as none of the participants was willing to speak with State House reporters at the end.

Meanwhile, fresh facts have emerged that the inability of ASUU and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) to come up with a joint sharing formula and the ongoing strike were factors behind the delay in the sharing of the N2.1 billion allocation to the University of Ibadan from the N100 billion recently released to federal universities.

According to investigation by the Nigerian Tribune, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Adewole, had held a meeting with leadership of the two unions to decide on the allocation.

The source claimed that the leaders suggested that the money be kept intact since ASSU had not called off its strike, while expressing doubts the union leaders conveyed the outcome of the meeting to other members.

Following persistent agitations by the union members that the money be shared, it was learnt that the vice chancellor mandated a committee to come up with a sharing formula that would be most acceptable and popular among members.

In another development, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU)/NASU leaders, on Tuesday, promised that the money would be paid on Friday once the VC returned from the meeting of vice chancellors in Abuja.

They reportedly made the promise at a meeting held at the Trenchard Hall Quadrangle in the institution