ASUU: FG sets up visitation panels, whitepaper committees

•Govt, union must adopt ownership structure to end strikes, says NECA ex-DG *FUDMA joins warning strike
Barely a week into the one-month warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Federal Government has taken a step towards resolving one of the pressing demands by the union.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, yesterday, announced the setting up of 21 panels to draft the whitepapers for the reports of visitation panels earlier sent to Nigerian tertiary institutions to review their activities.

ASUU had demanded the release of whitepapers on the reports of the panels constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2021 to visit 88 tertiary institutions across the country. It lamented 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, promised that government would give adequate attention to the recommendations contained in the reports.

TO end the incessant strikes by ASUU, former Director-General of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Olusegun Oshinowo, has urged the Federal Government and the union to adopt an ownership structure of tertiary institutions in the country.

Oshinowo told The Guardian yesterday, that government, teachers, institutions and students have not benefitted from strikes, which should cause introspection among the stakeholders.

According to him, in an ideal situation, the government at whatever level cannot employ varsity teachers.

RELATEDLY, the ASUU of Federal University Dutsin-Ma (FUDMA), Katsina State, has joined the one-month nationwide warning strike.

The decision, according to the chairman, Dr. Jibrin Shagari, was taken after the union’s last congress on Wednesday, February 16, within the premises of the university.

Management of the institution, he alleged, had tried to truncate the congress, a situation that forced the union to hold the congress under the tree.

He said the Vice Chancellor of FUDMA, Prof. Armayau Bichi, and the union had been notified of the development.

The union, after its two-day National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, began the four-week warning strike to protest the non-implementation of a 2009 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached with the government.