The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, of insulting lecturers and spreading fake news on the ongoing industrial action by University teachers.
ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this on Thursday while appearing on a Channels Television programme, ‘Sunrise Daily’ on Thursday.
He said that Ngige has resorted to fake news having failed to force striking ASUU members to call off the strike by withholding their salaries for five months.
The ASUU President was reacting to the recent statement by Ngige, who said there was no collective bargaining agreement between government and ASUU waiting for a presidential assent.
Osodeke said, “What the Minister of Labour has done is a complete insult to the character of people like Professor Nimi Briggs, Senator Chris Adighije, and Professor Olu Obafemi.
“The minister instead of looking for how to resolve the problem is busy abusing his colleagues, abusing even the Minister of Education.
“It is so sad that we have gotten to a stage where our children are lamenting at home and the Minister of Labour is busy churning out fake information and misinforming the public, trying to undermine the integrity of ASUU,” he said.
Osodeke further challenged Ngige to show Nigerians proof of a claim that his delegation was walked out of a meeting with ASUU members.
ASUU had on February 14, 2022, embarked on a four-week total and comprehensive strike to press home their unresolved demands on the federal government.
Some of the lecturers’ demands include funding for the revitalisation of public universities, payment of earned academic allowances, and adoption of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a preferred payment option, instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and payment of promotion arrears.
Others are the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement and the resolution of inconsistencies in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
ASUU on May 9 further extended its ongoing strike by another 12 weeks, to give the government enough time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues after an extension on March 14 due to an alleged lack of seriousness on the part of the federal government.
