Nigerian govt won’t give ASUU opportunity to go on strike again – Ngige

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said on Wednesday, the Federal Government would not give the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) any excuse to embark on strike again.

Ngige, who stated this when he featured in a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, said he would ensure the government keeps its part of the agreement.

ASUU suspended its nine-month strike on Wednesday.

The union’s President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who announced the suspension of the strike at a press conference in Abuja, however, said the varsity lecturers would withdraw their services by February next year if the government reneged on the agreement between both parties.

He said the suspension of the strike takes effect from Thursday.

But the minister insisted that the government would fulfill its part of the agreement.

READ ALSO: ASUU will suspend strike before January 15 – Ngige

According to him, the government would pay ASUU the agreed N40billion Earned Allowance before December 31.

Ngige said: “We will not get to that (fresh strike), we will not get there because we have so structured the agreement in such a way that it is a win-win situation for everybody.

“For example, the revitalisation fund, we have given the government up to January 31 to pay that. We have also opened the window that by end of February, we will sit down and review the situation, eight weeks or nine weeks from now, so nobody will keep anybody in suspense.

“The federal government team will not give ASUU the opportunity to go on strike again because I have three biological children that suffered from this imbroglio that we found ourselves in. So, I am a committed parent, I am involved, even more than some ASUU members because some of them have their children in private schools.”

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