The Federal Government said at the weekend that its decision to sack the striking lecturers was informed by the stance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to get its demand in one fell swoop.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, told reporters in Abuja that it was wrong "for a party to a dispute to come to the table with an "all or none" mentality".
Okupe regretted that ASUU leadership has remained recalcitrant, despite President Goodluck Jonathan's strenous commitment to the resolution of the crisis which he said informed his involvement in the last meeting with the striking lecturers, even as the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) slammed the government for threatening the lecturers with sack.
"In our present case, coming to negotiations as ASUU has done with this mindset, betrays a lack of understanding on the part of the body's leadership that the nation and the government are a continuum.
"Having said that, Nigerians expected that the direct involvement of President Goodluck Jonathan who sat for 13 hours in the meeting was the high mark of the crisis, which ought to have provided the final resolution to the crisis.
"The meeting with President Jonathan ended with a definite agreement and resolutions acceptable to the ASUU leadership.