ASUU has been on strike since June 30. The Vice President Namadi Sambo has, in a bid to end the continuous gridlock in the dialogue between the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and federal government, taken over the negotiation process. The government’s negotiation team was formerly headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim. For the first time since the commencement of the over 10-week-old strike action by the union, the Vice President met with the leadership of the union at the Presidential Villa on Thursday. The meeting was held behind closed doors. Nigerian Universities have been shut down since June 30 as a result of federal government’s failure to honour an agreement signed between it and ASUU in 2009 bothering on issues of university funding and improvement of infrastructure in the sector. Speaking to journalists at the Presidential Villa after the closed door meeting, the ASUU President, Nasir Fagge, said that he was taking back a “message given to him at the meeting for his members” and that Nigerians would have to wait for the response of his members on the way forward. “We have had a meeting with the Vice President and he has given us a message to our members, and we said that as the messengers that we are, we are going to deliver the message faithfully to our members and then they will take the decision.” According to him, “I know Nigerians are expecting a solution to the strike, we also want a solution, but I have been given a message to our members. The message is not for Nigerians, it is for our members”. “If I deliver the message, our principal will decide and we will get back to the ministry of education within this week,” he added, saying the union would get back to the education minister on its stance on the government’s latest offer. The federal government had offered N100 billion and N30 billion for infrastructure development in various universities and payment of verified earned allowances of lecturers respectively. It is not clear if the government made an improved offer for the lecturers whose only demand is that government implements fully the 2009 agreement. The Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, who was also at the meeting, explained that the meeting had been convened to find a lasting solution to the crisis. “One is quit hopeful that ASUU is committed, they have the passion and that there is the need for us to move the education sector forward. “ASUU coming to discuss means that they are committed on their own part and that the federal government is also committed. We have gone very far, we believe that in no distance time, you will have a very good result,” he said. Also on the ASUU delegation were two former Presidents of ASUU, Dipo Fasina and Abdullahi Sule-Kano. Other members of the government’s delegation included the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Julius Okojie; as well as the Vice Chancellors of Bayero University Kano (BUK), University of Ibadan (UI) and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, Abdulrasheed Abubakar, Isaac Adewole, and Muhammed Muhammed respectively.

ASUU has been on strike for about 3 months.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has blamed the rot in the Nigerian university system on the Executive Secretary of the National University Commission, Julius Okojie, saying his failure to insist on quality has bastardised Nigerian universities.
The lecturers also vowed to continue their strike unless the federal government honours the 2009 agreement it had with the union.
In a statement signed by its University of Ibadan branch chairman, Olusegun Ajiboye, ASUU renewed its call for the scraping or a total overhaul of the regulatory institution if the nation wishes to get it right in university education management.
While calling on the National Assembly to beam its searchlight on the activities of the NUC, Mr. Ajiboye said the recent NEEDS assessment report on universities reflects how much the commission has failed in its duties as a regulator.
According to him, the report undertaken by genuine academics contradicts NUC’s accreditation exercises which gave ‘controversial’ clean bill of health to most universities through “magomago accreditation.”
The union contended that only in a society like Nigeria would Mr. Okojie still remain in office after being heavily indicted in the report, saying “in sane climes, the NUC boss ought to have resigned through the revelations made in the NEEDS assessment report.”
Mr. Okojie had, last week, absorbed his commission of any wrongdoing in the rot plaguing public universities in the country, particularly as regards undeserved accreditation, blaming members of the ASUU instead.
Mr. Ajiboye, who described the statement credited to the NUC boss as ‘careless’, accused Mr. Okojie of using his cronies who can do his biddings to embark on accreditation.
He said the success of the 2011 elections was based on the patriotic zeal and contributions of genuine and patriotic ASUU members nationwide saying that was why the election was free of hanky-panky recorded in past elections.
The ASUU statement titled ‘Where Okojie Got It Wrong,’ insisted that the NUC boss is fond of using his ‘yes sir’ boys to do hatchet jobs during accreditations, thereby compromising quality most of the time.
The union said its almost three-month-old strike is fully on, adding that the it would not allow itself to be fooled again with ‘promisory notes’ of the federal government which had never worked in the past.
“ASUU cannot be blamed for NUC ‘magomago’ accreditations. Rather than blaming the Union, Okojie should take full responsibility for all the fraudulent deeds in the NUC, including the work and eat accreditations.
“The NUC knows the kind of academics they select for their ignoble exercises. These are cronnies of the big man in the NUC. They can never say no to his biddings. Nigerians should be proud of ASUU in it’s efforts at repositioning public universities in the country. One of these major efforts is the NEEDS Assessment Document.
“This was a product of a rigorous academic exercise carried out by dependable and credible members of our Union. Unlike the numerous faulty accreditation reports which had given these universities clean bill of health, the NEEDS Assessment Report stands out as a classical document of reference detailing the rot and decay in public universities in Nigeria. All well meaning Nigerians can see the contrast between okojie’s ‘packaged accreditation reports’ and a credible job done by ASUU.
“It has become very clear from the Needs Assessment that Okojie and his cohort of accreditors have fooled this country for too long. Enough they say is enough. Time is now for the Government to beam a searchlight on the activities of the NUC.
“The Education Committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives have an arduous task to do here. Nigerians are calling for dismantling of an omnibus body that has done the country more harm than good. NUC must go.
“Professor Julius Okojie cannot absolve himself from the rot in the university system by regulating quantity instead of ensuring quality delivery,” ASUU said.