From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has called on relevant stakeholders and well meaning Nigerians to prevail on the government to bring the ongoing negotiations with university based unions to a logical end, stating that it was tired of signing Memorandum of Action (MoA) or Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with timelines that are not implemented at the end of the day.
It also expressed sympathy for Nigerian students over the long closure of public universities.
It insisted that the Federal Government should be blamed for the slow negotiation process to resolve the lingering strike.
The union stated this in a statement issued by its President, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma, in Abuja.
The statement read in part: “We wish to put it on record and also put the records straight that the Federal Government should be blamed for the lingering strike action by the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
“The truth is that we are tired of signing Memorandum of Action or Understanding with timelines with Government for which Government has over time failed woefully to abide by.
“The leadership of the union sympathies with the students for which its children are part of and therefore re-states its commitment to go back to work but wish to plead with well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Government to as a matter of urgency bring the Negotiations to a logical conclusion as soon as possible
“It is important to re-state the following:
“The union had a conciliatory meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment on the 6th of May, 2022 and another tripartite plus meeting chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President at the villa on the 12th of May, 2022. Unfortunately none of these meetings yielded the desired results.
“The meetings of 21st of March and 21st of April, 2022 with the Renegotiation Committee is by all ramifications slow as no financial commitment has been made by Government to our union apart from the recent meetings by a sister union with Government.
“NAAT therefore pleads with Government to hasten up the process of the Renegotiation to enable all outstanding issues to be sorted out amicably.”