ASUU strike imminent as Minister Ngige says FG can’t meet demands

Except the Academic Staff Union of Universities soft pedals, academic activities in universities may again be disrupted, as the Federal Government has said it cannot meet the union’s demand for the payment of N284 billion in earned allowances.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, stated this on Wednesday while speaking with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting of the Federal Executive Council, saying there is no way government can pay because of recession.

According to Ngige, the Federal Government has accepted the union’s demand for the exclusion of endowment funds that accrued to universities from the Treasury Single Account, TSA, adding however that the exclusion does not stop the councils of the universities from auditing such accounts.

It would be recalled that ASUU had embarked on a one week warning strike to press home their demands, threatening to go on an indefinite strikes if government does not meet their demands.

The strike was however called off on Wednesday after several meeting with government and the National Assembly.

The minister said: “The other aspect of it is the earned allowance. The earned allowance is the only one that is not sorted out now because everybody knows and agrees that we are in a recession.

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“If we are in a recession and you are asking us to pay you N284bn, nobody will pay it because the money is not there.

“So, they (ASUU) agreed and the National Assembly also agreed, but the government offered them some amount pending when we finish auditing of the first tranche of money that has been given to them in that same area of earned allowances.

“That tranche of money that they collected is being audited, but the auditing process is very slow because some people for some strange reasons are not allowing auditing to take place. So, a time frame has been fixed of six months within which the auditing will be done.

“Within those six months, government has offered something that they will be paying on a monthly basis and ASUU has also made a counter proposal to government so both parties have gone back to their principals.

“ASUU has a principal which is the national executive body and government has come back to look at our finances viz-a-viz with the National Assembly which will appropriate that particular fund because for 2016, there is nothing in the budget for it. It will be done and appropriated as and when due.”
By Timothy Enietan-Matthews….

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