The federal government has again pleaded with members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off the ongoing strike and resume academic duties in federal universities.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, made the plea on Thursday while speaking with newsmen after his nomination for the ‘Public Service Icon 2021′ award by Sun Newspaper Publishing Limited.
The minister said the federal government has been working relentlessly toward addressing all the issues with ASUU and the other unions, noting that the government used N92 billion of the 2021 budget on revitalisation funds and Earned Academic Allowances as contained in the December 2020 agreement.
He criticised the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for opting for a high-powered panel to find solutions to the issues, stating that President Mohammadu Buhari had a high-panel team made up of his Chief of Staff, the Ministers of Labour, Education, Finance, Communication and Digital Economy.
Speaking on the renegotiation of university lecturers’ condition of service, the minister said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) principle of ability to pay must guide the renegotiation
Ngige also said the payment platform proposed by ASUU was faulted by NITDA who said UTAS passed the acceptability test but failed the integrity and credibility test which would protect it from being hacked.
“NITDA said UTAS failed. ASUU said we didn’t fail.
“As we were discussing, ASUU went on strike. In the face of this disagreement between ASUU and NITDA, we are talking with NITDA to bend backwards so that there will be a handshake between UTAS and the government certified IPPIS platform.
“After embarking on strike, ASUU has gone back to what I proposed to them”, he stated.
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