Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige has said that he is not against renegotiation of agreement with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The minister however, stated that some things were behind as he is not the Minister of Finance nor the Minister of Education but a conciliator.
Ngige spoke Monday, at his office while while receiving members of the government side of the 2009 Federal Government/university based unions agreement re-negotiation committee led by the Chairman, Prof. Nimi Briggs.
This was contained is a statement issued by the Ministry’s Spokesperson, Patience Onuobia on Tuesday.
Ngige who said he has been pushing to see that everything contained in the 2020 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and the union was implemented, lamented that the “bosses” at the federal ministry of Education, do not feel the strike unlike him whose kids attend public schools in Nigeria.
He said he was tired of the persistent strike actions by the varsity union and advised them to consider other options such as picketing.
He said, “I started pushing to see that things were done. What the Manzali committee came up with is a proposal. Both Manzali and ASUU did not sign. At our last meeting in February before ASUU proceeded on strike, we said everyone should go back to his principal. I asked Education several times what they had done with the document. We later got information on areas of disagreement. There is nothing wrong with that. It is bound to happen. I told ASUU to put up a committee, they said Manzali committee had expired.
“As a conciliator, I have to make use of the labour instruments at my disposal. The bosses in the Federal Ministry of Education, do not feel the strike. There are things that are above me. I am not Minister of Education. I cannot go to the Education Minister and dictate to him how to run his place. But I told ASUU that you should be bombarding them at the Federal Ministry of Education for this to be moved forward. There are many ways to do so. If you go to the labour act. There is something called picketing. You can picket. Strike is an ultimate thing. Picketing means that you can stay at the corridor, clapping or singing. Workers are permitted to do so. But I am tired of every time there is a disagreement, it is strike.
“And the bosses in the Federal Ministry of Education don’t feel the strike. It is the children and some of us parents that have our children in public schools. I have my children in public universities. Three have graduated in medicine from Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital in Awka in 2020, LUTH College of Medicine in October 2021 and UniAbuja in December 2021. Others are still there including those on my foundation’s scholarship and sponsorship.
“So, I am a parent. I feel it. I didn’t send my children to Igbinedion or Afe Babalola or Cambridge.”
“When we went to universities here, I knew the course content and as a medical doctor, the doctors we trained here are better than the ones trained abroad. That is one of the counsels I gave to my children. You can do your first degree. One got admission in Ghana, I said no. Others got in Canada and UK, I refused. If anybody will be interested in welfare of workers in Nigerian universities, I am number one. I told my colleagues that what university professors showed us here as their salaries is unacceptable.”
“Why won’t I support ASUU and their unions now want a renegotiation of their conditions of service, which is the main thing in the proposal by previous Manzali?”
Also speaking, Prof. Briggs who is also the Pro Chancellor of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndifu Alike, Ebonyi State, said the renegotiation committee was consulting all stakeholders with a view to finding a lasting solution to issues in dispute.
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