The industrial action, which started over six months ago, is a major reason why universities are yet to resume after the easing of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The Thursday meeting was convened as a follow up to the previous meeting held with the Senate leadership on Tuesday, where the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, committed to engaging Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other stakeholders to iron out the outstanding issues.

While Mr Ngige led the federal government’s team, the President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, led the representatives of the lecturers’ union.

Although Thursday’s meeting could not achieve the suspension of the strike, it concluded on the funding for revitalisation of public universities, according to a statement by the labour ministry.

“Government, in spite of the Economic downturn as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, brought an offer of N20 Billion (Twenty BillionNaira) layable by the end of January 2021and ASUU agreed to take the offer to its members for consideration..

According to the statement issued by the ministry of labour, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, will continue discussions with the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning on its earlier Memo to President Muhammadu Buhari on sources of alternative funding for the revitalization to facilitate the process of additional funding of the university system.

This is with a view to reactivating the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of 2013 as agreed in the Memorandum of Action (MoA) of 2019

On the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) rejected by the union, the meeting was informed that ASUU has met its timeline regarding the first stage of the initial demonstration of the efficacy of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to government as this was done on Wednesday, October 14, 2020.

“The meeting also agreed that if UTAS passes all the different stages of the integrity test which would involve National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Office of the National Security Advisers (NSA) and after ascertaining its efficacy; it would be adopted for the payment of the University staff.”