President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, to back down from negotiations with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Mr Buhari, who gave the directive during a briefing by the heads of the various concerned ministries, departments and agencies of government on Tuesday, 19 July, in Abuja, also okayed the suggestion by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to take over the negotiations.
Mr Adamu was said to have complained to the gathering about the reason behind his prolonged silence on the matter, saying his labour and employment counterpart had since 2016 argued “that only the labour ministry has the mandate to negotiate with striking workers unions in Nigeria.”
ASUU has also blamed Mr Ngige for allegedly complicating the crisis and making resolution difficult.
ASUU stated the position on Tuesday at a media briefing on the status of the negotiations. The union said the position became necessary as part of its efforts to clarify conflicting positions allegedly linked to the union.
According to Premium Times, a source who was at the meeting stated that earlier reports of President Buhari ordering the education minister to address the ASUU crisis within two weeks was inaccurate.
The source said; “The President never directed the education minister to end the strike in two or three weeks. It was the minister himself who hinted at a possibility of an end to the crisis between two and three weeks.
“But the education minister said he distanced himself from the negotiations following the position taken sometime in 2016 or thereabouts when a similar issue arose and the labour minister said it was his duty to take over negotiation and quoted some ILO provisions.”
The source said Mr Adamu expressed surprise that when his labour counterpart made the argument at a cabinet meeting at the time, none of the cabinet members contradicted him and that the President maintained silence.
“So the education saw the President’s silence as an approval of Mr Ngige’s position at the time,” the source added.
ASUU embarked on an initial four-week strike on February 14 but has continued to extend the strike as the union and the Nigerian government have failed to reach an agreement.
The university teachers are requesting the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 agreement that contains its members’ conditions of service as well as the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS) to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) currently in use.
ASUU alleged irregularities in the IPPIS, adding that the salary payment platform has stripped universities of their autonomy.
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