The supervising Minister of Education, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike,has urged the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), to call off the protracted strike.
This was made to known to the public in a statement released to the press in Abuja yesterday by his Special Assistant (Media), Mr. Simeon Nwakaudu.
The minister said he had led negotiations with ASUP and COEASU leaderships to resolve the on-going strike on several occasions and hoped that the two unions would respond positively to the latest efforts of the Federal Government and call of their strikes.
He said: “These negotiations has led to the Federal Government meeting about 90 per cent of the demands of the unions.
”Only one principal demand is yet to be finalised, but the Federal Government has placed before the two unions the payment of arrears of CONTISS 15 put at over N40billion for the two unions. The Federal Government has proposed two instalmental payments, which the unions rejected.”
He said further negotiations were held last week, adding that there was hope that in the coming days, the outstanding issues would be resolved.
The minister said the Federal Government had worked round the clock to resolve all issues presented by ASUP and COEASU.
“It is the hope of Nigerians that the associations will reciprocate by calling off their strikes in the coming days,” he said.
It would be recalled the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, set up the Needs Assessment Committees for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, and the two committees are in the process of concluding their reports.
