• Govt,
union to meet Thursday, says Ngige
The leaders
of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday stayed
away from a
meeting called by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, to find a
solution to the strike embarked upon by the union on August 13, 2017.
The meeting
was expected to be a follow-up to the August 17 meeting Ngige held with the
government and ASUU delegation.
But the
minister expressed disappointment with the union leaders whom he said had
promised during the last meeting to take the offer of the Federal Government
back to its members and revert within a week.
The minister
said a meeting had been slated to take place on Thursday between the Federal
Government and members of ASUU.
Ngige also
denied insinuations that ASUU shunned a meeting with the Federal Government
team saying, “government as you know has made an offer to ASUU through the
Ministry of Education and late Monday, ASUU got back to us with their counter
offer. By then, this meeting had been scheduled and the government side needed
to deliberate on their counter offer before we can have a reconciliation
meeting to further discuss areas of disagreement. That is the position right
now.”
His words:
“We are holding a government side meeting, while the minister of education is
also holding a meeting and we will meet later today and formalise our position.
Wednesday is Federal Executive Council meeting and there are aspects that we
will need FEC approval to go on with. Thereafter, we will meet with the ASUU
team either tomorrow (Wednesday) evening or Thursday morning, whichever will be
more convenient.”
In a
statement issued yesterday, titled “Nationwide strike: An update”, ASUU
President, Biodun Ogunyemi, said there was no need for the Tuesday meeting as
the union had collated its views and sent them to the Federal Government
through a letter dated Monday, August 28, 2017.
He said the
union was waiting for the government’s action on its letters, as well as the
timely resolution of the issues.
“We have
since held talks with representatives of government and consulted our members
nationwide on steps to be taken to immediately resolve the lingering crisis.
“On
Thursday, 17th August, 2017, we met with officials of the Ministry of Education
and Labour and Employment where it was agreed that the union should consult and
‘revert back to government’. Following due consultation, we have collated the
views of our members on the offers from government and were submitted to
Federal Government.
“As we await
the Federal Government’s action on our letter, we hope that it would not be
long before we receive a positive response which will bring an end to the
dispute. Meanwhile, we thank all Nigerians, particularly our students (and
their parents) and the media, for their understanding, so far, on the need to
speedily address the issues in the best interest of the Nigerian university
system and for the overall development of the country.”
Meanwhile,
the Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on the parties to adopt
a constructive engagement with a human face to resolve the lingering issues
that led to the declaration of the strike.
The
association gave the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum to resolve the
issues to enable students to return to school. It threatened that the failure
of this ultimatum would lead to a total shutdown of activities across the
nation by the students.
According to
the President of NANS, Comrade Chinonso Obasi, “incessant strikes and stoppage
of academic activities as a result of lack of agreements or lack of adherence
and implementation of duly executed memorandum of agreements between the
Federal Government and ASUU does not reflect and demonstrate commitment to the
sustainable development of the nation’s education sector and human capital.”
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