Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige on Wednesday said the Federal Government was addressing the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) holistically to ensure that all other unions in the university system were carried along.
Ngige said this while defending the budget of his Ministry before the Senate Committee on Labour and Employment.
Reacting to the concerns expressed by the senators on the prolonged ASUU strike, Senator Ngige told the committee that the Federal Government has met most of the demands of the union.
“Out of the eight demands of ASUU, the government has solved five. We have made N50 billion available. A total sum of N20 billion for the revitalisation of the universities and N30 billion for Earned Academic Allowances (EAA). The union agreed and went back to their members, only to return and say that the money for EAA should be for ASUU members alone, excluding other unions, namely, SSANU, NASU and NAAT,” Ngige said.
He explained that the Federal Government cannot ignore the other unions as such could be counter-productive to the smooth running of the university system.
“We cannot ignore the other unions whose services are indispensable for full functioning of the university. If we ignore them, even if ASUU calls off the strike, the other unions will down tools-close the lecture rooms, the libraries, the laboratories- and in fact, even the university gate.”
On the contentious issue of IPPIS, the minister said the University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS), which ASUU brought as an alternative has been sent to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for assessment.
Ngige however faulted the claim by ASUU that IPPIS would erode university autonomy.
“They said that university autonomy is being eroded. Autonomy cannot work when government is paying the lecturers. It can work only when the governing council generates its own resources to pay workers.