Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) chapter has said former minister of labour and employment, Dr Chris Ngige, allowed personal ego rather than the Nigerian Constitution to guide his judgement on matters of national interest while he served.
The union called on the Nigerian State to address what it described as unfair treatment meted on academics in the Nigerian public universities.
The ASUU chairman of ATBU, Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim Inuwa made the allegation at a press conference at the secretariat of the union at the Yelwa Campus of the university yesterday.
He said Ngige was adamant and acted to frustrate the efforts of ASUU members aimed at reviving university education in the country.
“It has become necessary for the Union to call the attention of the Nigerian State on the ploy by the former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, to divide and break the resoluteness of our members during the Union’s 2022 national strike that lasted almost 8 months.
“At the peak of our national strike, Dr Ngige deceptively told Nigerians that lecturers in the College of Medical Sciences of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi were not on strike.
“To convince Nigerians, Dr Ngige claimed that lecturers under the umbrella of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) wrote to him through the University Vice Chancellor dissociating themselves from the ASUU national strike.
“As a ploy, Dr Ngige presented MDCAN as a purely academic Union. He hid from the public the fact that not all Medical and Dental Consultants operating in the teaching hospitals are core staff of the academic unit that forms the College of Medical Sciences of the University (CMS).
“Under this guise, Dr Ngige made a case to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) for some lecturers in the CMS of the university to be paid,” Ibrahim said.
He said the union wondered why a minister who took an oath to ethically conduct himself in accordance with the dictates of the Constitution of the country will allow his ego to take him this far.
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