The Federal Government will engage the leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in crucial talks today, in a move to end the ongoing strike by the union.
Minister of Education, Professor Ruqa’yyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, made this known in Abuja, on Monday, saying reasonable progress had been made in the ongoing efforts to get the lecturers back to classroom.

She noted that a presidential intervention of N100 billion had been released to the implementation committee of the Needs Assessment Report, which has the Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam, as chairman.

Professor Rufa’i, who spoke while declaring open the mid-term review of the four-year strategy plan for the development of the education sector, said this was to address some of the identifiable challenges in the nation’s university system.

She said it was as a result of the resolve to address all challenges facing the sector that assessments of each area of the education sector were carried out.

“We have done this for the federal unity schools and it is helping in their transformation. The recent one carried out for all public universities has led to a presidential intervention to ensure that challenges identified are given due attention.

“As a result, N100 billion has been committed to this and the president has inaugurated an implementation committee chaired by Governor Suswam,” she said.

The minister said the implementation of the four-year strategic plan (2011-2015) was on course, stressing that credible progress had been made in the six focal areas as outlined in the plan.
She reaffirmed the commitment to move the sector ahead, saying “we shall continue to dig deep and identify further challenges and address them.”

Professor Rufa’i, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders to continue to show understanding, support and partnership, noting that “our actions today will define where we are tomorrow.”

She added that government would continue to dialogue with ASUU in order to end the ongoing strike that had crippled academic activities in government’s universities in Nigeria.