Asuu: Ngige Insists the strike won’t happen
The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige has assured that the strike threatened by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will not happen.
Ngige stated this on Channels Television on Tuesday, in reaction to a three-week ultimatum issued to the federal government by ASUU, to implement the earlier agreement reached with the union.
The union’s national president, Emmanuel Osodeke, explained that the industrial action became necessary due to the failure of the federal government to implement the memorandum of action (MoA) it signed with the union upon which the last strike action was suspended.
However, Ngige insisted funds were available for universities.
The strike will not happen. For one, I know that the funds to pay are there and the ministry of education has assured me that by tomorrow, they will emanate letters to make sure that the disbursement reaches the accounts of the various universities.
“We are not paying the unions directly, so it will get to the universities’ accounts,” Ngige said
Repeatedly, the minister of defense Dr Chris Ngige has claimed that funds are available for universities and that there’s no need for ASUU to go on strike, but we are yet to see the government take action by conforming with the reasonable demands of ASUU.
Demands that have been laid for over a year now. That’s very abysmal of the government.
Udokaogu Emmanuel Ogochukwu.