Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) last week turned down offers of food and drinks by the Presidency during a 13-hour marathon meeting between the federal government delegation, led by President Goodluck Jonathan and the ASUU delegation, under the leadership of its national president, Dr Nasir Fagge, Sunday Trust has gathered.
Jonathan, in a bid to end the four-month-old strike action by ASUU, held a meeting on Monday last week with the leadership of the academic staff union inside the conference room of the First Lady's Office at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The talks, which started at about 2.30pm that day and lasted for 13 hours, came four months after university lecturers embarked on the strike action to press the FG to implement agreement it had entered with them in 2009.
The federal government delegation, which was led by Jonathan, comprised Vice President Namadi Sambo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation Anyim Pius Anyim, Chief of Staff to the President Mike Oghiadome, Ministers of Education, Finance and Labour Nyesom Wike, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Emeka Nwogu, respectively and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie.
ASUU National President Dr Fagge led to the meeting, a nine-man delegation, comprising President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Abdulwaheed Omar, Trade Union Congress (TUC) President Bobboi Kaigama, former ASUU President Dipo Fasina, Professors Festus Iyayi, Suleman Abdul and Abdullahi Sule-Kano.
Sources close to the meeting, however, told Sunday Trust that throughout the duration of the negotiation, the ASUU delegation had refused to take the refreshments provided by the federal government.
The source also said the union leaders had confronted the federal government delegations with facts on its spending in other sectors to support their stand that the federal government was capable of meeting the needs of the Nigerian universities.
Sunday Trust further gathered that most part of the meeting was heated, with the ASUU team emphasizing to government that if it allowed the strike to go into 2014, they would be seeking for the fulfillment of a different part of the 2009 agreement.
"They told government that the strike was embarked upon because of its failure to implement the 2013 and that if it allows it to go into 2014, ASUU will be seeking for the implementation of the agreement's provision for that year," the source added.
Confirming that the delegation had turned down federal government's meal during the meeting, former ASUU president, Sule-Kano, said the action had been part of the tradition of the union since 1992.
Sule-Kano, who declined to disclose if the federal government had met their demands, said ASUU would take position after local chapters of the union had briefed their respective congresses across the country on Monday.
Asked if the meeting was a success, Sule-Kano said: "It is our branches that will decide whether there was headway or not. Normally, the principle is to interact with government and report back to the members, to let them decide and make their judgement."
"We have this axiom which says that 'you cannot trust government.' It is very difficult for us to trust government, because their move is very difficult to judge. That is why we go to our members to allow them to look at the issues. How will they interpret them? Will they see them as shortchange? It is very difficult to say that for now," he said.
He stressed that the ASUU leadership was only acting as messengers between members and government, saying that was the reason they could not take decisions on their own.
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