Apparently angry by the delay in resolving the prolonged strike action embarked upon by university lecturers, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, to hands off negotiations with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to his Education Ministry counterpart.
Buhari, who reportedly gave the directive during a briefing by the heads of the various concerned ministries, departments and agencies of government on Tuesday in Abuja, also okayed the suggestion by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to take over the negotiations, Premium Times reports.
Adamu was said to have complained about the reason for his prolonged silence on the matter, saying his labour and employment counterpart had since 2016 argued “that only the labour ministry has the mandate to negotiate with striking workers unions in Nigeria.”
ASUU has also blamed Ngige for allegedly complicating the crisis and making a resolution difficult.
ASUU stated the position on Tuesday at a media briefing on the status of the negotiations.
The union said the position became necessary as part of its efforts to clarify conflicting positions allegedly linked to the union.
At Tuesday’s briefing, the concerned ministries, agencies and departments of government gave the status of the negotiations to the president.
Those at the meeting with the president were the ministers of education, finance, labour, and communications and digital economy, Adamu Adamu, Zainab Ahmed, Ngige and Isa Pantami respectively.
Others were the Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; Chairman of the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, and the Director-General of Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.
A source at the meeting told Premium Times correspondent that the president directed that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and Ngige should only serve as observers and conciliators at the resolution meetings.
The source further explained that the education minister has promised to immediately begin a series of meetings with ASUU to resolve the crisis as soon as possible.
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The source said: “the minister has consistently explained that the agreement reached with the previous administration on the release of about N1.3 trillion to the university system is not realistic but that something around a quarter of such can be worked out.
“Also, in the salary structure being negotiated, the minister is open to paying a professor a salary not less than N1million. That will be tabled before relevant agencies of government to arrive at implementable proposals so that the unions can take them to their members for consideration.”
The source said because the minister believes the lecturers are patriotic Nigerians, the matter could be resolved.
“So the president agreed to this and asked him to take immediate action.”
Meanwhile, in a statement on Tuesday, the President of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, berated the labour and employment minister, Ngige.
The union expressed reservation about Mr Ngige’s claim of being a conciliator, accusing him of taking sides.
The union said; “ASUU has always had serious reservations about the claim of “conciliation” by someone (Mr Ngige) who has taken sides in the dispute, or by an unabashed protagonist in the crisis such as the current Minister of Labour and Employment. It is antithetical to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions (98, 151 & 154) on collective bargaining and tripartism.
“The Trade Dispute Act, the principal legislation for labour relations, does not empower the minister to assume the office of conciliator. This is to guarantee the principle of ‘’good faith’’ in negotiations, which implies making every effort to reach an agreement, conducting genuine and constructive negotiations and applying them in good faith.
“It is against the principle of natural justice and the doctrine of equality for Dr. Ngige who carries himself as if he has personal scores to settle with ASUU and shoots down the Union everywhere it matters, to assume the role of conciliator.”
He said nothing concrete came out of the endless deliberations with the minister as the conciliator as he “kept approbating and reprobating”.
The ASUU president said: “It appears that Dr. Ngige has deliberately misrepresented the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) convention on the collective bargaining agreement and the roles of a conciliator to serve his propagandist interest in this matter.
“For instance, he would declare that he fully supported our demand that the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU be speedily concluded within six weeks while at the same time creating an unrealistic pathway to arriving at a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA),” Osodeke said.