Barring unforeseen circumstance, the leadership of the House of Representatives will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari next week aimed at ending the lingering strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The decision was made known by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, following the House leadership’s interaction with ASUU executives and other stakeholders yesterday.
The Speaker assured that the House would come up with recommendations that will enable the President to view the issues at stake from an informed second option.
Gbajabiamila remarked that information gathered from the extensive interactions would assist the leadership in arriving at fact-based recommendations for the resolution of the crisis.
Saying that the interest of the children that have been at the receiving end of the trade dispute should be paramount, Gbajabiamila appealed to both sides to give in and make concessions from their initial demands.
He said: “We will put together our recommendations and our thoughts and take it to Mr. President, that’s why we are here to interface and look for solutions.
“Again let me repeat, we are running a government, nobody, no individual, no group, whether you are legislative, judiciary or whatever can be above the government or be above the law.
“We did not say because the court has given judgment, that’s the end of our conversation. In spite of the court judgment, we are still looking for solutions, we didn’t even address it here, I don’t want to address it.
“We are appealing to you, the judiciary has spoken, the executive has spoken, the legislature is about to speak together with the executive; everybody cannot be wrong and only one person is right. For me, I’m happy with the solution on UTAS, no victor, no vanquished, everybody is being carried along. For the sake of emphasis, the House is pleading with you, let’s put all interests aside and look at the interest of our children.”
Source: Guardian.ng
