ASUU has gone on leave– Ngige

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Wednesday refered to the ongoing warning strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities as “leave of Absence” following the failure of the union to notify the ministry of Labour and Employment before embarking on a strike.

Ngige also said that the union failed in its agreement to report to the committee of National Inter-religious Council headed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Sa’ad, and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev Samson Ayokunle, before embarking on a strike.

Recall that the Union had blamed the Federal Government for constantly failing to honour some of their lingering demands such as payment of revitalization funds for universities, payment of earned allowances for university lecturers, deployment of the UTAS payment system for University lecturers.

Ngige, however, in his words said,

“I am sure you know NIREC which is headed by the sultan and the CAN president, I am sure you also remember that the President mandated his Chief of Staff, the ministry of labour and the ministry of education to find a way to make sure that we resolve the issues with ASUU.

“NIREC met with ASUU twice and they discussed some of these issues. The leadership of ASUU promised to ponder over it and meet with their National Executive Council(NEC), and while we were waiting for them to bring a feedback, we then got a news of ASUU going on a strike.

“ASUU failed to give us a feedback and proceeded to go on strike without notice. hence it is assumed They choose to give themselves leave from work. because it is expected that they should have atleast officially informed the authorities involved before embarking on a strike.

“It is illegal to go on strike in that manner. So, they are just on leave. however we will work with them and they decide to call off the strike.”