According to report, the leadership of the House of Representatives will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari next week for a resolution on the ongoing face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The Speaker of the house of representative, Femi Gbajabiamila made this known on Thursday.
According to the Speaker, the leadership will meet with relevant stakeholders to come up with recommendations that can be tabled before the President in order to view the issues at stake from an informed second option.
Gbajabiamila appealed to both parties to consider the interest of the students at the receiving end.
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, can be above the law.
“We can’t be against and I’m speaking specifically to ASUU, 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.
“Otherwise, we could’ve said, if government has given judgment, I don’t know if there’s a stay of execution, I don’t know.
“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 interest aside and look at the interest of our children.
“The white paper we told you we’ll get, the letter is here, it’s now waiting for the President’s final approval.
“On revitalization, I asked the DG budget here if provision has been made in the budget. We made a promise to you, and we are staying by that promise.
“Regarding the issue of UTAS, you said you haven’t seen the report; we have it here, so we’ve been working for you”.
Speaker Gbajabiamila assured the lecturers that they would be invited, to the House after the meeting with the President.
“When we make our recommendations, we are going to meet with Mr. President and interface on your behalf”, he assured them.
