The Federal Government has said all the issues brought by the Academic Staff Union of Universities to the negotiation table except one have been amicably resolved.
The Federal Government made this known through the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, on Saturday.
Echono, who spoke with newsmen after monitoring the Professional Qualifying Examination organised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, said the strike by ASUU was needless as there are other and better ways of resolving issues.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari was very concerned about the strike, which ASUU embarked upon since March 2020.
He said: “The government is working very closely with ASUU.
“We are very concerned and the President is very concerned about this protracted strike, which, to so many of us, is unnecessary.
“We believe there are other ways of getting things done.
“There’s a shared acceptance of so many of the issues and we are at a point that very quickly and soon, it will be resolved.
“There’s only one issue in contention, really.
“The other issues have either been resolved or there have been some kind of compromise that worked out.
“We believe that reason will prevail and the overall national interest will be the guiding principle in coming to a quick resolution.
“I can assure you that work is going on assiduously in this.
“Only two days ago, the ASUU executives were at the Ministry to meet with the Minister for certain consultations and we felt we needed to tell them exactly what our positions are.
“We will look at the overall interest of the Nigerian people.
“We know that we also operate in a context of government playing out different segments even in the University setting.
“We have four different unions making demands and we have to balance this.
“We understand the peculiarities of ASUU and we believe the members are patriotic enough to know when to call it quits and when to call a compromise.”