Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige on Tuesday said the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) agreed at their last meeting with the government team on November 27 to call off their nine-month-old strike before December 9.
Ngige stated this in a statement in reaction to claims by ASUU President Prof Biodun Ogunyemi that the government had failed to deliver on offers made to the union.
Ogunyemi had blamed the government for the union’s failure to call off the strike, noting that the lecturers would not return to classes until their salary arrears were paid.
“The truth of the matter is that a ‘gentleman agreement’ was reached at the last meeting in which ASUU agreed to call off the strike before December 9, 2020, and the minister, in turn, agreed that once the strike is called off, he would get a presidential waiver for ASUU to be paid the remainder of their salaries on or before December 9,” Ngige stated.
The minister said it was discomfiting for ASUU to wrongly inform the public that the government agreed to pay all withheld salaries before it would resume work, adding that the N40billion earned academic allowances have been processed alongside the N30billion revitalisation funds.
He disclosed that “they were paid for February and March, after which it was extended to April, May and June, months they were on strike on compassionate ground, bringing it to five months.”
The statement added, “Asking the government to pay these four months before it goes back to work means ASUU is placing itself above the law of the land and no government will encourage it as it is a recipe for chaos in the labour milieu.”
