Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said after a closed door reconciliatory meeting with leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday in Abuja.
The lecturers embarked on strike on Nov. 5, 2018, to press home their demands.
ASUU demands include some areas of understanding in the implementation of the Memorandum of Action agreed in 2017.
Some of these areas include shortfall in salaries of some Federal Universities’ workers and lecturers, earned allowances, revitalisation that were part of the 2009 agreement, among others.
According to Ngige, today we have agreed to fund revitalisation.
“Government has released about $535 million (N163 billion) from TETFund account to universities.
“So, we have gotten some substantial agreement in most of the areas of the agreement.
“Most of the issues have been resolved, so they are going to go back to their members and present government’s offer to their council,” he said.
“These are debts of 2009, owed by the past administration, that is 2009 to 2012, so it is not our own debt and we have been doing a lot to settle these debts.
“So, we will be reconvening at the instance of ASUU. They said they want to go and consult with their members and they cannot call off the strike without consulting with their members,’’ he said.
Earlier, the minister had said that President Muhammadu Buhari mandated him to ensure that all issues concerning the ongoing strike in the university system were resolved.
In his remarks, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President, said that there were still some grey areas in the proposal presented by the Federal Government.
He said the union would look at the grey areas and would get back to the government.
“The most critical area is the revitalisation, because it is central to our work, as academics and unless that area is addressed our members will have issues with ongoing action.