President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu to resolve the prolonged strike embarked upon by the four university-based unions and report back to him in two weeks time.
President Buhari gave the directive on Tuesday after he received briefings from the relevant government Ministries, Agencies and Departments involved in resolving the face-off with the university unions.
Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, had proceeded on one month warning strike on February 14, and other unions also withdrew their services after that as a result of the alleged inability of the federal government to meet up with their demands.
Buhari summoned the Tuesday meeting to receive briefing from the government team on while the strike has lingered for too long.
The President after hearing from the relevant MDA’s directly involved ordered the Minister of Education to ensure that the impasse was resolved within two weeks and report back to him.
Sources at the meeting also said that President Buhari directed that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige must be in any of the meetings to resolve the crisis.
The sources further said that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha should be part of the team to interface with the striking unions.
Meanwhile, the Academy Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said the union does not want to suspend but end the over five-month industrial action over the disputes with the government.
President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who made this known Tuesday during a press conference said the union want the federal government to address the issues in contention so that the action would end permanently.
He blamed Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige for compounding the issues between ASUU and federal government as a conciliator.
“Following the resumption of the strike by our Union at the University of Lagos, on the 14th February, 2022, we participated at several meetings at the instance of the Ministry of Labour and Employment chaired by Dr. Chris Ngige as ‘Conciliator’.
“Dr Ngige kept going back and forth on concluding the integrity test for the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for replacing the discredited Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information (IPPIS) contrary to the letters and spirit of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) of December 2021.”
On the directives by President Buhari for the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu to ensure the dispute with the union is resolve within two weeks, the ASUU president said the matter can be put to rest in no time if government is sincere.
