FG, ASUU meeting deadlocked, rescheduled for Aug.19A closed-door meeting between the FederalGovernment and the Academic Staff Union ofUniversities (ASUU) on Tuesday in Abuja ended in adeadlock. However, Gov. Gabriel Suswam of Benue, who alsoserves as Chairman of the Universities NeedsAssessment Committee, told newsmen that bothparties had rescheduled their negotiations for Aug.19. Suswan, who is the negotiator for the FederalGovernment, said that tremendous progress had been made in the negotiations. He said that this wasmainly on the NEEDsAssessment and Earned Allowance issues raised byASUU. The governor expressed his optimism that theissues would soon be resolved going by theprogress made so far. “Well the meeting continues next week Monday.We made some progress; we had very fruitfuldiscussion with ASUU. “We have agreed we are tomeet again on Mondayat about three o’clock. When we meet again we willbe able to arrive at some decisions.’’ He gave assurance that Federal Government wasmaking effort to resolve the crises in the educationsector. Suswam said that government had introducedsome new faces in the negotiating team, includingthe minister of finance and the director-general ofthe Budget Office. “Now that finance minister is coming, we aregetting close to resolving it because the strike isabout settling some debts and also intervening inthe universities and so she is here and she alsocontributed. “I have spent so much time as governorbeing part of this which shows the seriousness which thepresident attaches to what is happening in theeducation sector. “As I leave here, we are going tothe secondmeeting which is on Needs Assessment. We want tomake sure that we solve this problem so we are holding meetings round the clock.” He said thatgovernment believed that the nextmeeting with ASUU would open a new phase in thenegotiations.