The Nigerian government has once again assured the Academic Staff Union of Universities that their demands will be addressed.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, stated this on Wednesday.
The minister said most of the union’s grievances were domiciled in the ministries of Education and Communications and Digital Economy.
He said: “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.”
However, ASUU had said a strike would commence if nothing is done by the government before February 12 and 13.
The union is demanding that the Federal Government implement the Memorandum of Action agreed upon in 2021.
ASUU claimed the government is avoiding its responsibility by asking ministers to oversee the implementation of the MoA.
The Chairman of the Kwara State University branch, Malete, Dr Salau Sheu said, “It is wrong for President Muhammadu Buhari to assign two ministers to oversee the implementation of the Memorandum of Action signed last year with ASUU.
“First, the assigned ministers are not part of the agreement. Only the ministers of Finance and Education were part of the agreement.
“ASUU is having its National Executive Council meeting at the University of Lagos on February 12 and 13.
“If nothing is done by the government between now and then, the lecturers may go on strike.”
