ASUU STRIKE: FGN Meets With ASUU ….Work Is In Progress- Ngige

Oru Leonard

The Federal Government of NIgeria represented by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige on Tuesday met with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU).

The meeting which came in the hills of ASUU’s declaration of its warning strike last week, over what it termed as “the Federal Government’s refusal to honour its agreement to implement the Memorandum of Action signed with them in December 2020.”

The Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige, insists that the government is doing its best, and is surprised that the lecturers embarked on the latest action.

While addressing the audience, Ngige stated, “I have just treated the file and sent to the relevant persons for action be patient, it is on work in progress”.

The university lecturers maintain that issues such as the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and that of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), the non-payment of academic earned allowances and university revitalisation still form a critical part of the reason for the latest strike.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has asked the Federal Government and ASUU to comply with the Memorandum of Understanding to end the ongoing warning strike in the interest of students and the education sector in the country.

During their plenary on Tuesday, the House had mandated the Committees on Labour, Employment and Productivity and Tertiary Education and Services to liaise with the relevant ministries and stakeholders to address the outstanding issues that led to the current strike.

The resolutions followed a motion titled, ‘urgent need to address the frequent strike actions by ASUU,’ moved by Dozie Nwankwo from Anambra State.

The University lecturers had planned that the ‘warning’ strike action will last for four weeks.