In a last ditch effort to resolve the ASUU strike, President
Goodluck Jonathan will on Monday, November 4, meet with the leadership
of ASUU at the Presidential Villa.
This was part of the
resolutions of the meeting between the ASUU leadership, Vice President
Namadi Sambo and the Supervising Minister of Education on Tuesday as was
first reported by this medium.
An official of the Vice
President's office who pleaded anonymity said that all hands are now on
deck to ensure that the universities resume next week.
The
official stated that the Vice President and the Supervising Minister of
Education have made head-way in resolving the strike, but the final
involvement of the President is to show ASUU that there is the
commitment of the Federal Government at the highest level.
It was
learnt that the President has been fully briefed on steps taken by Vice
President Namadi Sambo and the Supervising Minister of Education to get
to this point and he will at next Monday's meeting present to the
ASUU
leadership the administration's last concession for them to call off the
prolonged strike.
A source at the Presidential Villa
noted that if ASUU fails to call off, the Federal Government will then
resort to plan B, which will be to compulsorily open the universities,
using the instrumentality of the governing councils and the school
managements.
Already, most of the governing councils of
the universities have started meeting to work out modalities for the
compulsory re-opening of the universities should ASUU fail to honour the
personal request of President Jonathan.
According to report, the
Supervising Minister of Education, Barr. Nyesom Wike and the Vice
Chancellors of Public Universities also discussed the re-opening of the
schools last Monday.
Most of the Vice Chancellors suggested the compulsory re-opening of the schools, should the last ditch efforts fail.
It
was gathered that security report available to the Presidency may have
necessitated this line of action to salvage the universities system from
the direction it is facing at present.
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