Strike: We Are Not Opposed To Renegotiation With ASUU – Federal Govt

The federal government, on Tuesday, said it was committed to the renegotiation of the conditions of service of all workers in public universities across the country.

Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, stated this when he received the federal government’s representatives at the 2009 federal government/university based unions agreement re-negotiation committee in Abuja

The committee is led by its chairman, Prof. Nimi Briggs.

Speaking on the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ngige said as the conciliator, he has been pushing to see that everything contained in the 2020 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the government and the union were implemented, including the implementation of the renegotiated positions.

The minister said that in the December 2020 agreement, he gave the government’s side a timeline to return to the university unions who are their employees to sort everything out.

“I started pushing to see that things were done. What the Munzali committee came up with is a proposal. Both Munzali and ASUU did not sign. At our last meeting in February before ASUU proceeded on strike, we said everyone should go back to his principal. I asked Education several times what they had done with the document. We later got information on areas of disagreement. There is nothing wrong with that. It is bound to happen. I told ASUU to put up a committee, they said Munzali committee had expired.

“As a conciliator, I have to make use of the labour instruments at my disposal. The bosses in the Federal Ministry of Education do not feel the strike. There are things that are above me. I am not Minister of Education, I cannot go to the education minister and dictate to him how to run his place.

“But I told ASUU that you should be bombarding them at the Federal Ministry of Education for this to be moved forward. There are many ways to do so. If you go to the Labour Act, there is something called picketing. You can picket. Strike is an ultimate thing. Picketing means that you can stay at the corridor, clapping or singing. Workers are permitted to do so. But I am tired of everything,” Ngige stated

He said the Nigerian university system produced him and he remains proud of it.

The minister said he had commissioned studies on productivity with regards to emoluments and based on the results he got, it was clear that payments done 10 years ago when the exchange rate was better, amounted to nothing now with 100 per cent depreciation of Naira compared to the Dollar.

Also speaking, Prof. Briggs who is also the Pro-Chancellor of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndifu Alike, Ebonyi State, said the renegotiation committee was consulting all stakeholders with a view to finding a lasting solution to issues of dispute.