The Nigerian Government has inaugurated a seven-man Re-negotiation Committee on the 2009 Agreements with university-based unions, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to resolve all the pending issues.
Tahir Mamman, the minister of education, while inaugurating the committee, tasked it with producing a realistic and workable agreement that would comprehensively tackle the challenges confronting the Nigerian university system and reposition it to effectively play its very important role in national development.
He recalled that the re-negotiation of the 2009 agreements between the Federal Government and the university staff unions (ASUU, NAAT, SSANU, and NASU) commenced on Monday, February 13, 2017.
“Regrettably, this had lingered for this long due to a number of unforeseen circumstances. However, it is important to state that the immediate past leadership of the Renegotiation Committee under Professor Nimi Briggs, produced a draft report with significant areas covered, and agreed that would be a springboard to hinge on going forward to conclude the exercise,” Mamman said.
“There is no gain saying that the earnest desire of every stakeholder in the Nigerian University System (NUS) and, indeed, at large, is to conclude this re-negotiation exercise within the shortest possible period,”
The minister said the committee is to liaise and consult with relevant stakeholders to guide the position of the Nigerian Government on the issues in the draft proposed FGN/University-based Unions Renegotiated Agreements.
Other terms of reference are to renegotiate in realistic and workable terms the 2009 Agreement with other university-based unions and recommend any other issue the committee deemed relevant to reposition the NUS for global competitiveness and submit proposed draft agreements within three months from the date of inauguration.
The minister, however, noted that some of the issues had been resolved while they were working on others.
