The Nigerian government on Monday resumed talks with the leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) over the ongoing strike in public polytechnics which started December 12.
The meeting began at about 11 a.m at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja with the national president of ASUP, Usman Dutse, leading the union’s delegation.
An official of the ministry disclosed to newsmen that the education minister, Adamu Adamu, was not in town, so the closed-door meeting is being chaired by the permanent secretary of the ministry, Sunny Echono.
The union went on strike over non-implementation of the NEEDS Assessment report of 2014, non-payment of salaries in state-owned institutions, non-payment of allowances and alleged victimisation of union members, among others.
ASUP went on strike in November 2017 but suspended it after two weeks when the federal government agreed to implement the recommendations of the 2014 NEEDS assessment.
The agreement particularly highlighted the need for increased funding of polytechnics.
The polytechnic lecturers joined their university colleagues who have been on strike since November 4.
