By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
The four university-based unions have withdrawn their services as a result of some unresolved demands from the Federal Government.
In this interview, the Minister of Labour and Employment and
Conciliator-in-Chief of the Federal Government, Senator Chris Ngige says that
the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has no business embarking on
strike because government is working on their demands.
He says the demand by the unions to review their condition
of service is a genuine one and that something is being done. He speaks also on
the University Transparency Accountability Solution, UTAS.
Excerpts: You had a meeting with the Nigeria Inter-Religious
Council over the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities,
Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions, NASU and
National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT.
How did the meeting go?
I explained to them what had happened, where we are and that
a lot of committees have been set up, working with education for them to get
these things sorted out. And they have timelines, six weeks. So, ASUU has no
business going on strike within that six weeks, they don’t have to. And by
labour laws, once I am conciliating a matter, you don’t go on strike, you don’t
continue with your strike. I have apprehended it, you know, so if they go on strike
like that, they are forcing me to look at other areas of labour laws, because I
cannot sit down as minister and a strike is going on and I am doing nothing. If
I am unable to apprehend it, then I should send it to higher bodies, National
Industrial Court of Nigeria.
Do you think that their demands or agitations are wrong?
What kind of question is that? Somebody says you should
review his salary, how can it be a wrong demand? It is not a wrong demand by
any standard anywhere in the world, it is not. But you discuss with your
employers, that is how it is; and then he will give you his books and every
other thing. You look into the ability to pay. It is a part of Decent Work
Agenda and International Labour Organisation, ILO Principles at Work.
Can my employer afford this? That is it. So I am not against
them demanding that and that is why I told the Ministry of Education to bring
back the Committee to look at the proposal that the Professor Manzali Committee
did because a lot of the members of the Committee have left. So bring them back
and look at this report and then you distill it and get something up for the
higher body of government which is the Presidential Committee on Salaries for
now.
But as it stands now, what is the way forward, what is the
government doing to address the issue?
We are dialoguing, the committees are working, UTAS is being
tested.
Which group are you dialoguing with? Is it with ASUU, SSANU,
NASU or NAAT?
That of SSANU and NASU is new. So I have asked their
employers to go and look at it. Like you are talking about the Staff Schools,
that issue is an issue that has long been on ground and we agreed on the ways
and things to be implemented. So I don’t know…
What about a court judgment on the issue which the
government has not implemented?
Are you sure government didn’t appeal the judgment? I think
there is an appeal. But there is an area of the judgment that government said
it will implement and the Education ministry said they will implement and I am
sure they have implemented that.
If government has implemented it, don’t you think it will be
unreasonable for anyone to go on strike because of that?
That is what you should ask them. It is becoming a habit
that when ASUU goes on strike, NASU and SSANU feel that the university is now
empty, that they should also go on strike. So that is what has been going on.
There is this impression within SSANU, NASU and NAAT that
government doesn’t take them seriously at all, government only tries to
recognise ASUU and doesn’t even listen to the demands of others?
It is not true. And make no mistakes about it, a lot of the
demands are overlapping. The same complaint on Integrated Payroll and Personnel
Information System, IPPIS, the same complaint on revitalisation, the same
complaint on academic allowances. So they overlap.
So once we treat it with any of the unions, we normally by
extension, apply it to the other unions. For example, the earned academic
allowances we are working on will encompass all the unions in the university
system, all the four unions. The revitalisation fund is for the four unions,
they are all affected and other things.
When are we expecting the strikes to come to an end?
You should ask them.
On the side of government, you are the chief conciliator,
what efforts are being made to ensure that the strikes are called off?
I am the chief conciliator, yes, but they have their primary
employer which is the Ministry of Education, so the Ministry of Education will
answer this question, they are their workers, they are their staff.
Have you as the conciliator told their employer, the
Ministry of Education the adverse effect of these prolonged strikes?
The adverse effect of the strike is not good, it is like
going to war, war does no side any good. But the people who bear the brunt are
the children and their parents. So I don’t like it.
Have you told their employers what they should do as the
chief conciliator?
I have discussed with them, and they have shown me what they
are doing and I think with what they are doing, they are going in the right
direction. - Vanguard
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