The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Femi Gbajabiamila has said that the House of Representatives has yet another meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday.
According to Gbajabiamila, the meeting is expected to yield Buhari’s final decision on the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The speaker disclosed this when he led a delegation of principal officers of the House to the Presidential Villa immediately after Tuesday’s plenary.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, he said the decisions and recommendations submitted to the President for approval were made after a series of engagements with ASUU and some executives.
“As you know, what is on the front burner today, even beyond the politics, is that our universities, our lecturers, and our children are out of school,” he said.
“The House of Representatives decided to step in at that point four weeks ago and we’ve had a series of meetings that lasted hours and we’ve been able to get both sides to shift ground to an extent and that’s what we came to discuss with Mr. President about those recommendations.
“Mr. President, as usual, had a very good listening ear, he took the report of the House, accepted it. We discussed the details of the report at length and he wanted to go through them himself.”
Gbajabiamila also expressed hopes that the crisis would soon be resolved, as the delegation had a robust engagement with the President.
“We have another meeting on Thursday between our good selves and Mr. President for his final decision. We had a good engagement, with a very positive response,” he said.
“He asked us a couple of questions, in some grey areas which we clarified, and he accepted the reports and he wanted a couple of days to go through it.
“We are working and we are hopeful that this strike will soon be a thing of the past. I know once this is agreed upon, the strike will be called off.”
ASUU embarked on strike on February 14 over unmet demands by the Federal government.
The strike has since forced thousands of students in most public universities in the country to their homes.
