The Federal Government has declared the industrial actions embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian University as illegal. The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, stated this shortly after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting held at the State House yesterday. Adamu Adamu disclosed that the renegotiation was still ongoing with the ASUU official when they jumped the gun and declared an industrial action prior to the conclusion of negotiation with the Federal Government.
The Minister said he was surprised by the action of ASUU being an elite union, however, the ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke kicked against Mallam Adamu's claim that he was economical with the truth as ASUU had visited him the last Thursday informing him of pending industrial action.
According to Osodeke, the minister deflected from talking about the pending industrial action instead when the union visited him.
Meanwhile, the Minister faulted Osodeke insisting that after several negotiations between the Federal Government and ASUU, both parties could not conclude on one thing and was adjoined.
The Minister said, “ASUU, unfortunately, has gone on strike and I am looking for their leaders because all the issues are being addressed.
He explained that “The last thing that happened was that our committee looked at their demands but there are renegotiations going on. They submitted a draft agreement which the ministry is looking at”, saying, and suddenly ASUU went on strike.
He added although the ASUU draft was being looked into by a committee set up by the government and subsequently when the committee finished their work, the federal government was meant to make known its position, and boom! ASUU went on strike.
When the Minister was asked about the ASUU allegation that he refused to attend a meeting with ASUU, he said, “ASUU will never say that. I always summon the meeting myself. The meetings I didn’t attend were those that happened when I was in hospital in Germany.
He added, “We want a peaceful resolution. The Federal Government is ready to meet them on all issues they have raised and if there are so many meetings and the gap is not closing, then, I think it is not the fault of the government.
“There is a solution to this. The negotiations are the solution and that is why I have said that I am surprised that ASUU has gone on strike.”
The Minister said since he is not the only federal government agent negotiating with ASUU, he can’t say exactly when ASUU will agree to resume classroom.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour and productivity, Chris Ngige has described the industrial action by ASUU as “AWOL” ‘Absent With Out Leave’ insisting that ASUU did not inform his office before embarking on the industrial action.
He also noted that the union failed in its agreement with the 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, by failing to report to the committee before embarking on strike.
Ngige said, “If you want to go on strike, you should at least inform us officially but they refused to. You cannot just go on strike like that, it is illegal. So, they are just on leave. We will work with them and they will call off the strike.”
Shading light on the issue of IPPIS, the Minister said, “ASUU went on strike in February 2020, saying their members should not be enrolled on IPPIS at all even when UTAS was not ready but that they should continue receiving their salaries and some allowances via the obnoxious cash system or the abolished recurrent GIFMIS system through which the Federal Government incurred a loss of about N750bn annually paid to ghost workers and other fraudulent financial sharp practices.
Ngige said there is nowhere on the planet where an employee dictates to his employer how he should be paid as long as the payment is being done when due., he advised ASUU to get back to their employer for renegotiations and call off this illegal strike.