President Goodluck Jonathan has called on the Academic Staff Unions in tertiary Institutions in Nigeria to resolve lingering disputes and put an end to incessant strikes in the education sector.

The president also reaffirmed his administrations’ commitment to changing the face of tertiary institutions through infrastructure development.

He directed Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USDF) to provide adequate funding to strengthen the newly commissioned Nigerian Research and Education Network at the National Universities Commission.

The need to accelerate the use of technology in Nigerian universities is the primary reason for the initiative by the National Universities Commission.

The Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, said the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NGREN) had created a broadband interconnectivity between 29 federal institutions to drive more productive research.

This is the first phase of the Nigerian Research and Education Network Project which received a 10 million dollar funding from the World Bank. The project will promote resource sharing and provide services and applications like video conferencing, IP telephony and network security.

According to the Nigeria University Commission, the second phase of the project would begins in a year and should incorporate over 100 universities across the federation.