The Senate on Wednesday appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities to end its nationwide indefinite strike action.
ASUU had on Monday embarked on indefinite strike over the failure of the Federal Government to implement the 2009 agreement with the Union.
Briefing journalists, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Senator Jubril Barau, said ASUU needs to call off the strike for renegotiation proper between it and the executive to take place in the interest of the troubled education sector and students.
Barau described the action by the university teachers as a surprise having earlier intervened earlier in the year when they embarked on warning strike by facilitating renegotiation between the union and the Federal Government on the implementation of the 2009 agreement.
He lamented that the Senate expected ASUU to have reported back it the difficulties it was experiencing in the renegotiation so that the legislators can intervene in the matter.
He added that embarking on strike by the Union would clearly make things difficult for students and parents.
Barau said: “This strike action by ASUU is as a result of not having confidence in the committee set up by the Federal Government to renegotiate the 2009 agreement.
“But we in the Senate are surprised that ASUU did not report back to us on problems being encountered with the executive on the agreement before embarking on the strike.
“The committee therefore calls on ASUU to reconsider its position, shelve the strike action and return for renegotiation with the federal government on the said agreement.”
Speaking on what the Senate has done so far on the ASUU issue, the chairman said: “We captured some aspects of their grievances in the supplementary budget we passed immediately after the negotiation was concluded here in the National Assembly.
“Because they raised those issues that had to do with their allowances that were not paid and they were actually captured in the supplementary budget that we passed at that time.
“But for now, we don’t know because we have not sat with them so we don’t know what their grievances are.
“The Senate Committee on Tertiary Education will now begin to get involved, to monitor.
“It’s purely an Executive affair but since this thing had gone unabated, we will need to go in and monitor to see what is happening.
“It has now become a matter of interest to us.
“It has always been a matter of interest but we thought it could be handled by the two parties.
“But since it has become something else, we will need to be monitoring what is happening on a daily basis.”