Ngige: ASUU will end strike before Jan 15

Chris Ngige, the minister for labour and employment, says the federal government will work out an end to the protracted strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) before January 15.

The minister was speaking on Tuesday after a meeting with members of the union on the industrial action, which has lasted over nine months.

According to PUNCH, Ngige said he also got confirmation from the federal government that most of the grey areas have been resolved.

“The government would disappoint all those wishing for the protests as all the matters in dispute must have been resolved by January 15,” the minister was quoted as saying.

“Those who want to use the #EndASUU protest to destroy public and private property or lecturers’ homes will be disappointed. I am optimistic that the meeting will produce the final result that will make everybody happy.

“We are hopeful that ASUU will then take the report of what we achieved today to their members. We allow social dialogue in line with ILO conventions for all employers and employees, to guide this meeting.”

The union, whose national executive council (NEC) has engaged FG in series of negotiations, went on an indefinite strike in March over the non-implementation of agreements and resolutions the government reached with it in 2009.

It had also opposed the adoption of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) while presenting its University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as alternative payroll software.

Ngige was speaking at about the same time when some lecturers confirmed that they had been paid two months’ of their withheld salaries.

In a chat with TheCable Lifestyle on Wednesday, Attahiru Ndanitsa, ASUU’s chairman at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, said: “They’ve started as said. But someone is owing you six months and they’re paying two.

“That person hasn’t done much. And some varsities like those in the health sciences are yet to be paid. That’s it.”