Why Striking ASUU members shouldn’t be paid – Education minister

The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, has said it doesn’t make sense for members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to continue to earn salaries while on strike.

Speaking to The PUNCH in a telephone interview on Sunday, Nwajiuba said, “The lecturers have continued to earn salaries while on strike; it doesn’t make sense to earn salaries when you have refused to work.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14 due to several unresolved issues — one of which is the union’s insistence on making use of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a preferred payment option, instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

Several attempts at negotiations between the union and the federal government have proven futile.

The minister said, “If you refuse to even pay them, by the time they call off the strike, they will still come back to fight for the payment of the period they refused to work.

“You can air your grievances, come to the negotiation table without refusing to work. The issue of the strike has become a thing of concern. I have four children; two have graduated while the other two are still in public universities. I feel for them, I feel for other students who are at home. I feel the same way other parents feel, but can I bring money from my house and give it to ASUU?

“The Ministry of Education isn’t the employer of the lecturers, we are a supervisory body, and there is no way we can fire or hire someone. Universities have governing councils that supervise the activities that go on, our job as in the ministry is to supervise, we can’t meddle in.

“On the issue of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, I am also paid via the IPPIS, it is owned by the government, there is no way you can tell the government to throw away its platform and pay you with another platform.”

Meanwhile, the President of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Mohammed Ibrahim, has accused the Federal Government of focusing on frivolous things and neglecting the education sector and the youths.

Speaking during the 2022 May Day celebration in Abuja on Sunday, Ibrahim said the universities were forced to shut down due to government insincerity, adding that the standard of education had continued to go down.

He stated, “Our universities have been forced to shut down due to the insincerity of the government to keep to its promises. The standard of education continues to go down due to the insensitivity of the government and the inability to provide good teaching, learning, and work environment through lack of basic facilities that will make them compete favorably with their peers in other parts of the world.

“The morale of university workers is dampened by the poor pay package and the government appears to be paying lip service to education. It is very clear that government pays more attention to frivolous things and has neglected youths that are said to be the leaders of tomorrow.’’

The SSANU President lamented the condition of Nigerian workers whom he said were going through perilous times in form of insecurity, economic hardship, and other challenges.

He noted, “This year’s Workers Day comes when Nigerian workers are passing through perilous and dangerous times. Nigerian workers and indeed members of our great union are confronted with diverse challenges like the rising spate of armed banditry, kidnappings, insurgency, economic hardship, and worst of all, the inability of the government to keep to agreements it entered into with all the university-based unions in 2009.

“Our members have been denied payment of new Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustment arrears and a backlog of earned allowances in addition to other violations of our rights and privileges.  Our universities have been forced to shut down due to the insincerity of the government to keep to its promises.”

He admonished the government to resolve the ongoing strike by university workers and also tackle the challenges facing the country.

“Toying with the future of our children will spell doom for our dear country. I call on the government to look into the demands of all the university-based unions and take urgent steps to address them so that our children will go back to school,’’ the union urged.

Osinbajo asks NLC, TUC to facilitate a truce between FG, ASUU

Meanwhile, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has called on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to embrace dialogue with the federal government to end the ongoing strike action.

The vice-president spoke in Abuja on Sunday at the commemoration of the 2022 International Workers Day.

Osinbajo said the government is “not unmindful of the anxieties of our children and their parents”, while he urged the “broader labour community” to facilitate a dialogue.

He said both the government and the union are “members of the same progressive family”, adding that dialogue is the only path to resolution.

“We are not unmindful of the anxieties of our children and their parents who are plagued by thoughts of an uncertain future as they stay home because their universities have been shut by an industrial action,” he said.

“I appeal to ASUU and the broader labour community to seek the path of dialogue.

“Even as we disagree today, we must not do so as mortal adversaries but as members of the same progressive family.

“We both want the same thing – a country that works for all and offers each citizen a fair deal – even if occasionally we differ on how to achieve this goal.

“But at all times, we have, through dialogue, found a path forward. It is in this spirit that I call on ASUU to embrace dialogue with the Government.

“I call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress to help facilitate a resolution of this dispute through dialogue.

“I believe that we can find a path forward in good faith. And this is what we will do.”

On his part, Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, criticized the situation where strikes are always the first option considered by the unions in pressing home their demands.