The Senate today has arranged a meeting with the Minister of Education, Mr. Tunji Alausa, and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abdullahi Yusuf Ribadu, Tuesday next week, as part of efforts to end the ongoing 2-week warning strike embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

This was disclosed to the public on Friday when members of the Senate’s Committees on Labour, Tertiary Institutions and TETFund interfaced with the lecturers at the National Assembly in Abuja in a bid to bring to an end the industrial disputes.  

Briefing journalists on resolutions adopted at the end of a closed door session the joint committee had with the leadership of ASUU, the Chairman,  Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Senator Muntari Dandutse (Katsina South), said the committees had heard from ASUU and is determined to ensure that the grievances are addressed by the appropriate quarters.

“After meeting with the national leadership of ASUU on the way out of the current strike and the looming indefinite one, we have resolved to convene a very important meeting with relevant government agencies , particularly the Minister of Education and Executive Secretary of NUC on Tuesday or Wednesday next week,” he said.

Earlier, before the closed door meeting, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, told the committee members that, “We engaged the federal government for eight years without tangible results. The Yayale Ahmed Committee report, submitted in December 2024, was ignored until this industrial action began”, he said.

On funding delays, Prof. Piwuna revealed that although the National Assembly approved N150 billion for universities, only N50 billion has been released so far.

 Even that amount, he noted, remains stuck at the Ministry of Education, where the minister allegedly intends to share it among universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, despite separate allocations for those institutions.