The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on
Wednesday stated that the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of
Universities was a “leave” following the failure of the union to notify his
ministry before embarking on strike.
Ngige also noted that the union failed in its agreement with
the National Inter-religious Council headed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji
Abubakar Sa’ad, and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev
Samson Ayokunle, by failing to report to the committee before embarking on
strike.
The minister made this known in a telephone interview with
our correspondent in Abuja.
ASUU had on February 14 2022, announced the commencement of a one month rolling and comprehensive strike after its National Executive Council meeting held at the University of Lagos, Akoka.
The union had blamed the federal government for constantly
failing to honour some of the lingering demands such as payment of
revitalization funds for universities, payment of earned allowances for
university lecturers, deployment of the UTAS payment system for University
lecturers.
Ngige, however, said, “I am sure you know NIREC which is
headed by the sultan and the CAN president. I am sure you also remember that the
President mandated his Chief of Staff, the ministry of labour and the ministry
of education to find a way to make sure that we resolve the issues with ASUU.
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“Now, NIREC met with ASUU twice and they discussed some of
these issues. The leadership of ASUU said they would go back and meet with
their NEC. We were waiting for them to come back and then we heard they were
going on strike.
“ASUU failed to get back to us and proceeded on strike
without sending notifications. They just gave themselves a leave. If you want
to go on strike, you should at least inform us officially by giving us
notification but they refused to.
“You can not just go on strike like that, it is illegal. So,
they are just on leave. We will work with them and they will call off the
strike.”
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