We’ll ensure ASUU doesn’t embark on strike – FG

The Federal Government has said it will begin the process of paying members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities their outstanding funds today.

The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, who said he had yet to be officially put on notice by ASUU, said the government would not allow the union to embark on the strike threatened by the university lecturers on Monday.

Ngige made this known on Tuesday while appearing on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television monitored by our correspondent from Abuja.

He said, “The strike will not happen. For one, I know that the fund to pay with is there and the Ministry of Education has assured me that by Wednesday they would emanate letters to make sure that the disbursement reaches the accounts of the various universities. We are not paying the unions directly, it will get to the universities’ accounts.

“I will have a meeting with the Minister of State for Education who is the one in charge of the affairs now because the main minister (Adamu Adamu) is overseas on health grounds. I will evaluate the situation with him and we would make sure that the disbursement goes on.”

READ ALSO » ASUU STRIKE: We’ll Meet The Union But No Date Yet, FG Reacts As ASUU Set To Embark On Indefinite Strike

ASUU has given the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum over the failure of the government to implement the agreement reached with it.

This is as the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, claimed in an interview with The PUNCH that the union had failed to submit a breakdown of the workers entitled to the N22.1bn earned allowances.

President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, at a press conference held on Monday had blamed the Federal Government for failing to honour the agreement it signed with the union, which made it call off its strike in December 2020.

ASUU embarked on a nine-month strike in March 2020, following its disagreement with the Federal Government over the funding of universities and alleged ineffectiveness and discrepancies around the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and others.

ASUU, however, developed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution to replace the IPPIS and had several meetings with the ministries of Finance, Education, Labour and Employment, and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation before it was approved, but it has yet to be implemented.

Likewise, the government and ASUU signed an agreement aimed at addressing some of the demands of the union, a development that led to the suspension of the strike on December 23, 2020.

After a meeting with the government on August 2, 2021, Osodeke said the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency insisted that the UTAS must be re-presented to the end-users.

READ ALSO » ASUU Set To Embark On Indefinite Strike

At the meeting, the Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chris Ngige, had assured ASUU that the N22.1bn earned allowances captured in the 2021 supplementary budget would soon be accessed by university workers.

The National Universities Commission had also promised to pay the sum of N30bn as a revitalisation fund for federal universities.