The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Joint Action Committee of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) have denied reaching an agreement with the Federal Government to call off their industrial actions.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, had last week said some issues such as the 2009 agreement which affects the renegotiation of condition of service and wage review could be concluded this week.
ASUU, SSANU, and NASU are pushing for improved welfare packages and better working environments.

However, the national leaders of ASUU and JAC of SSANU and NASU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke and Mr Mohammed Ibrahim, confirmed that the Federal Government and all stakeholders in the education sector and religious leaders had a meeting with the four unions but no strong agreements were reached.

Speaking, Osodeke said Ngige’s claim after the meeting that the unions would call off the ongoing strike this week was a political statement, adding that the FG has not done anything that could lead to the end of the industrial actions.

The ASUU President said: “We are not aware that we are calling off the strike. We met but there was nothing concrete between us and the government.

READ ALSO: Buhari appeals to ASUU to call off strike

“Like we said before, we do not want promises, we want actions, if they show action and implement all the issues, we will go to our members, but knowing their antecedents, we know they will not do anything.

“They promised us since December 2020 and it is going to a year and a half, they have not done anything. We are waiting for them.

“As far as we are concerned, only when they sign our agreements, accept UTAS, release EAA and revitalisation funds will we call the strikes off.”

Also speaking on the development, Ibrahim said the major progress he could point at during the meeting was the ordering of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) by the presidency who was represented by the Chief of Staff to the President and Chairman of the meeting, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, to subject the three payment solutions; Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system , University Transparency and Accountability Solution and University Peculiar Payroll Payment System, to integrity test and submit in three weeks.

“We are not talking about calling off strike now,” he stressed.

The Star