Toscad News By Ogechukwu Chukwugekwu
6/5/2022. ASUU/TALKS
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU is to resume talks with the Federal Government next week over the lingering strike.
This is after the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu had apologized to the Union asking for forgiveness for failing to respond to their demands early enough. See Twits below 👇👇👇
During a meeting between the government side and the striking National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT in Abuja, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige noted that the aim of the renewed talks was to see a possible means of ending the prolonged strike.
Meanwhile, ASUU had requested that President Muhammadu Buhari Directs Vice President to handle the negotiations since the Education and Labour Ministers could not resolve the issues.
Dr Ngige pointed out that the multiple industrial disputes in the education sector could have been averted if the unions had taken advantage of his open door policy like the health unions, which culminated in the peace currently enjoyed in the health sector.
The Minister who also decried the rivalry between the education unions, stressing that all the Unions were important in the university system.
He gave an assurance that the government was tackling all the disputes in education sector holistically, as none of the unions could function effectively without the other union.
Dr Ngige maintained that the issues causing the disagreement in the industrial milieu were economic, bordering on money and welfare, including old arrears and 2009 renegotiation of Conditions of Service.
The Minister however, pointed out that the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement would not be immediate because the Education Ministry had put in place a committee to handle it.
The President of NAAT, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma said ordinarily, they would not have gone on strike, but they were compelled to do so because the Education Ministry didn’t help matters at all.
He said they embarked on strike as a last resort to draw government attention to their plight.
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