Labour Minister Misinforming Buhari About Strike – ASUU President

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused Labour and Employment Minister Dr Chris Ngige of misinforming President Muhammadu Buhari on its ongoing strike.

ASUU said Buhari would not have made his Monday ”Enough is enough” comment on the strike if he had been briefed on the outcomes of negotiation by the Ministry of Education.

The union said it was not aware of the sum circulating in the public as the amount needed to resolve the strike, which began on February 14.

While receiving some All Progressives Congress (APC) governors, legislators and political leaders at his residence in Daura, Katsina State, the President lamented that the strike would have “generational consequences on families, the educational system and future development of the country.”

He called on well-meaning Nigerians, particularly those close to ASUU leaders to intervene by persuading them to reconsider their position.

ASUU wants the government to adopt the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a payment platform for its members and implement the renegotiated 2009 agreement as conditions for ending the strike.

However, APC Presidential Candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has promised to intervene in the face-off.

ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, who spoke on Channels Television programme – Sunrise Daily – yesterday said: “If the President had been properly briefed by the committee through the Minister of Education(Alhaji Adamu Adamu), I don’t think the President would have said, “enough is enough.” He would have said go to your class while we are negotiating.

“It is the labour minister and his group that would have gone to the President to tell him that if we chase out his people, we’ll refuse salary.

Read Also: ASUU Strike: Striking Lecturers Gives Condition For An Immediate End In Strike

“We are not aware of where their so-called figure arrived from. In all our agreements and discussions, we didn’t talk about 1.2 trillion or 2.4 trillion, or whatever. We didn’t.

“We didn’t calculate the quantum of what we would need. We calculated what each member of our union will earn.

“If this man who is telling you this figure can tell a lie that ASUU chased out his members from the negotiation table, why would he not tell a lie about the figure?

“The ministry (Labour and Employment) is churning out fake figures. We negotiated with the Ministry of Education. So, wherever they got the documents is their business.”

Aviation workers have threatened to embark on a solidarity strike with ASUU if the government fails to resolve its disagreements with the university teachers.

The workers, under the aegis of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE),.said the strike had done incalculable damage to the education of Nigerian children, especially those from poor homes.

“ This situation is worsened by the laiz-a-fez attitude the Federal Government has adopted towards resolving the imbroglio brought about, in the first place, by the government’s failure to play its part in the agreement with ASUU,” NUATE said in a statement by its General Secretary,  Ocheme Aba.

The statement added: “This situation is deeply worrying, to say the least. NUATE, therefore, completely supports the position of the National Executive Council of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to the effect that the government must immediately resolve the prolonged ASUU strike.

“It is totally unacceptable to allow the education of the children of poor workers, and other poor citizens, to be so badly truncated as to become worthless.

“As such, NUATE totally supports the public demonstrations ordered by NLC to call on the Federal Government to urgently resolve the imbroglio. NUATE further affirms that the union stands ready to embark on industrial action in solidarity with ASUU, should the Federal Government fail to heed the call to duty over this matter.

“Accordingly, aviation workers nationwide are hereby notified to remain at alert for commencement of solidarity industrial action that may be directed by the NLC and its affiliates on the matter which may come at short notice.”