The Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige during the
ongoing closed-door meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities in
Abuja said the union’s claim that the Federal Government had refused to
implement the memorandum of agreement it signed with the union was not true.
According to Ngige, he was shocked when the union went on
strike despite the moves by the National Inter-Religious Council co-chaired by
the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Sa’ad and the President of the Christian
Association of Nigeria, Rev Supo Ayokunle.
A statement to keep the public abreast of the meeting was
issued by the ministry’s spokesperson, Charles Akpan.
The statement quoted Ngige as saying “But I must tell you
that on the government side, they were taken by surprise in that before
then, NIREC met with you (ASUU) and
reported to the President. Having met with you (ASUU) and having given the
details of their meeting with you, we
sincerely hoped we won’t again take this route of industrial action. So, the
government side is taken by surprise – Ministry of Education, Ministry of
Finance and all are taken aback.”
“It is my mandate to apprehend industrial disputes and this
has been apprehended so we can discuss,
and later expand to what is called tripartite plus meeting, involving
members of NIREC who are top religious and traditional rulers, we cannot push
aside. And that is as soon as we are done and agree on issues here.”
“It should not be one month strike. In fact, there is
nothing like one month strike or warning strike in labour parlance. Strike is
strike. We want this to end as soon as possible, as we sort out all grey areas
in the agreement as the ILO Principles At Work allows for renegotiation of
Collective Bargaining Agreement. So we go back to the draft agreement. We must
avoid another situation where our children bear the brunt of two elephants
fighting.”
“I did a correspondence on the report by NITDA on UTAS to
you in December 2021 and you sent your observation in a reply in February 2022.
I made that available to all the parties involved, that this is the observation from ASUU. So,
as far as I’m concerned, it is work in progress. I’m not the Minister of Education. My
Ministry is not your direct employer, but I take these proactive measures to
fast track agreements and ensure we meet up the timelines.
“Apart from that, all
the issues in the agreement are being religiously implemented, including but
not limited to the payment of Earned Academic Allowances through the office of
the Accountant General of the Federation in November/December 2021. So, most of
the issues in 2020 agreement, which moved over to 2021, and for which we met in
October 2021, to take progress report
on, are all works in progress. So it is wrong for you to say nobody is doing
anything on the MOA.”
ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke in his speech
blamed the Federal Government for the ongoing strike, alleging that apart from
not implementing the 2020 MOA,
government also failed to convene the regular implementation monitoring
meeting as agreed.
ASUU insisted that calling off the industrial action
depended entirely on the Federal Government as members were determined not to
shift ground until their demands are met.
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