Ngige says FG will look into ASUU’s grievances, strike threat

10 Feb Ngige says FG will look into ASUU’s grievances, strike threat

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Wednesday, stated that the Federal Government would look into the threat by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

The minister also said most of the union’s grievances were domiciled in the ministries of Education and Communications and Digital Economy.

Ngige stated this in an interview with The PUNCH in Abuja.

ASUU had issued several threats of an indefinite strike over what the union tagged the failure of the Federal Government to honour some of the agreements it signed with it in the past.

In 2020, ASUU went on a nine-month strike, which was called off in December of that year.

In 2021, the union issued fresh threats and gave the Federal Government a three-week ultimatum to address its grievances. The union later shelved the move following the payment of N22.1bn earned allowances and the release of N30bn revitalisation fund to the universities.

Ngige explained yesterday that, “The truth is that ASUU’s grievances are with the NUC, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. The issues are the deployment of their UTAS and the White Paper report on the universities.

“You know that we at the Ministry of Labour are not their employer; the Education ministry is their employer. Our job here is to act as reconciliatory officers.

“The President has mandated his Chief of Staff and the Minister of Education as well as the Ministry of Labour to step in, but my job is to step in as the reconciliatory officer if both sides refuse to settle their grievances. We will surely look into the matter.”