ASUU: Why Union Should Have Called Off Ongoing Strike — Ngige

With the persistence of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has blamed the union for making it hard to negotiate between both parties, ASUU, and the Federal Government. 

Sen. Ngige, in a statement, issued by the Acting Head of Press and Public Relations, Patience Onuobia, on Tuesday, reacted to claims that he was the reason for the prolonged strike.

He said ASUU had now made negotiation impossible, however, he had done what many would not have done to put an end to the industrial actions by the union.

“For example, ASUU insists that the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) should take the payment platform, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) that it developed.

“That they should deploy it for payment in the university whether it is good or bad, whether it failed integrity and vulnerability test or not.

“ASUU members know that fraud committed on payment platforms can run into billions. If a hacker adds zeros to hundreds, it becomes billions", Ngige said.

Speaking on ASUU's proposed payment platform, UTAS, the minister said NITDA can not give the proposed platform 99.9 percent of vulnerability and integrity, adding that it had the tendency to be hacked. 

“These are the issues. So if you hear someone saying Ngige is responsible, it is wrong. I’m not the one that implements it. I’m the conciliator.

“I conciliate so that there will be no more warfare and even in conciliation, once I apprehend, the parties go back to status quo ante- which means, you call off the strike.

“ASUU should have by now called off the strike because that’s what the law says.

“I have earlier, while we convened the National Labour Advisory Council in Lagos last month, urged the NLC to which ASUU is affiliated, to intervene in this respect,” the minister said.

He also disclosed that the Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee on Renegotiation of 2009 Agreement had done and submitted its task to the Ministry of Education, despite the lack of cooperation by ASUU.

“We will follow it from there. There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel”.

The minister, however, noted that he had successfully conciliated 1,683 industrial disputes since his assumption of office in 2015.

He said that the role of the Minister of Labour was to conciliate disputes and did not include the implementation of agreements reached with parties.

“However, when conciliation fails, the Minister is under obligation by sections 9 and 14  of Trade Disputes Act, Cap T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria to transmit the results of the negotiation to the  Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) or to National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN).

“In the ongoing ASUU imbroglio, I’m the conciliator. I bring them to negotiate with their employers.

“That is the Ministry of Education and the National University Commission as well as IPPIS, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, all under the Ministry of Finance.

“At the end of every negotiation, we put down what everybody has agreed on in writing and add timelines for implementation,” he added.

Senator Ngige also mentioned the recurrence of the ASUU strike in the last 20 years, noting that the union had gone on strike 16 times and the ongoing one in no news.

“What is new however is that I have done what Napoleon could not do,’’ he said.