ASUU strike: We made an offer to the union – Minister

The Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufai, on Tuesday said the Federal Government made an offer to the Academic Staff Union of Universities but was yet to receive any response from the union.
NAN reports that members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities started a nationwide strike on Tuesday to press home their demands for the implementation of the 2009 agreements with the Federal Government.
The minister, who was answering questions from journalists in Abuja, did not give any hint on the details of the offer made by the government to the union, but maintained that government was still expecting ASUU’s response.
Rufai said: “They are our colleagues.
“We meet with them.
“We discuss with them.
“There is an offer from government.
“We expected to hear from them and up till now we are expecting to hear from them.”
Also commenting on the issue, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, said that ASUU was supposed to write the government in respect of the offer made to them during a meeting held between them about three weeks ago.
Okojie said that ASUU had informed representatives of the Federal Government that it would get its response after its National Executive Meeting.
He said: “We have no official report from them.
“They should write to us.
“We have been meeting regularly.
“We even met on Sunday.
“About three weeks ago, there was an offer made to them by the government.
“They said that they were going to their NEC.
“What we expected from them is that they should have come to us and told us what was the result.
“As far as I am concerned, if they are on strike, we don’t know.
“They should write to us.”