Recall that last week, the government set up Prof Nimi Briggs’s committee to renegotiate the 2009 agreement which was slated to complete its three-month timeframe by June 7, 2022.

However, investigations showed that the committee will meet with the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Monday (today), while the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Allied Institutions would meet on Friday.

“We are meeting the FG committee in Abuja on Monday,” a source in ASUU said. The union’s National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview, also told Punch that meetings would resume this week.

“We are resuming the meeting this week and we have an invitation this week. The renegotiation meeting will only end if we have called off the strike.

“Since the strike is still on, the meeting cannot end. We do not have any problem with the committee. When we do, we will communicate with the committee,” he said.

Similarly, the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Allied Institutions’ National President, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, told our correspondent that SSANU’s meeting would be on Friday.

“Yes, we are meeting with the FG on Friday,” he said.

The SSANU strike started with a two-week warning strike which began at midnight on March 27, 2021, and was extended for another two weeks on April 10, 2022, which is currently ongoing.

On February 14, 2022, ASUU began its ongoing strike after the Federal Government failed to meet some of its demands, including the release of revitalization funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution.