Speaking to SaharaReporters, Barambu said the aim of the meeting is to a centre point for amicable resolution to ensure that students in public universities return to school.
The President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Usman Barambu, on Thursday met with the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba in Abuja over the seven-month-old strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Speaking to SaharaReporters, Barambu said the aim of the meeting is to a centre point for amicable resolution to ensure that students in public universities return to school.
“I led a delegation to meet with the President of Nigerian Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba in Abuja to discuss the issue of ASUU strike and strategize on how to end the incessant strike.
“This is part of the commitments I made during my manifesto, here we have started engaging relevant stakeholders to strategize on how to bring the prolonged strike action to an end.
“The plan is to ensure peaceful coexistence and uninterrupted academic activities in all tertiary institutions in the country,” the NANS President said on the phone.
Members of the delegation were the Senate President, Comrade Attah Felix; Secretary General, Usman Baba Kankia alongside other NANS Comrades.
Lecturers in government-owned universities – affiliated with ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike on February 14 over the adoption of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), introduced by the government as the payment system in the university sector.
They had also decried the poor funding of universities, non-payment of salaries and allowances of some of their colleagues, as well as the inability of the government to pay earned academic allowance to lecturers, among other issues.
Since the industrial action began, several negotiations between the union and the government have ended in deadlock.
The NLC has faulted the Nigerian government over its handling of the industrial action.
It called on the government to pay the salaries of the striking lecturers, which it said had since “been frozen on the premise of the so-called ‘no work-no pay’ policy”.
The labour body also asked the government to immediately conclude the ongoing negotiations with unions and be prepared to “commence implementation of whatever Collective Bargaining Agreement arising therefrom” in a bid to ensure public universities resume normal activities.
In July, the NLC declared a two-day nationwide protest to stress the importance of resolving the impasse with the unions in order to save the university education system from collapse.