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Tag: Chris Ngige

  • ASUU strike: We need N1.12 trillion to pay salaries, allowances of lecturers, staff – FG

    ASUU strike: We need N1.12 trillion to pay salaries, allowances of lecturers, staff – FG

    The Federal Government has disclosed that the report of Prof Nimi Brigg Committee proposing a 109-185 per cent increase in the university wage structure will incur an additional N560 billion as salaries alone on the government and that by implication the sum of N1.12 Trillion will be needed to pay the salaries and allowances of university lecturers and other staff in the university system.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment made this disclosure in a statement signed by Mr Olajide Oshundun, Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations in the ministry on Wednesday in Abuja.

    Senator Ngige disclosed this while reacting to comments by Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who had said that there was a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which currently awaits signing by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Ngige said that there was no CBA awaiting the signing of President Buhari and that when one is produced between unions and the federal government, it is not the president that signs.

    “But by the government side, the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) led by the direct employer with the concillliating ministry witnessing.

    “We wish therefore to inform Nigerians that there is no such CBA that has been reached  between the federal government, ASUU and other university unions on the renegotiation of their salaries and allowances(wages).

    “What is in existence is a proposal. Even when such CBA is made, it is not the president that signs it. From available records, no Nigerian President or sovereign signs such, ’’he said.

    The minister added that the true position was that Nigerians were aware that ASUU had been on strike since Feb. 14, and locked in negotiations on their demand.

    He said that their demand particularly include, their conditions of service – wages, salaries, allowances and other public service matters, that would be guided by relevant federal government ministries and agencies.

    He said that those involved include the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Budget office of the Federation.

    He noted that others were the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Office of Head of Service of the Federation, through the newly set up Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee.

    “Note that that Prof Nimi Brigg Committee just like the Prof. Munzali Committee it replaced, is an internal committee of the Ministry of Education to receive ASUU demands and renegotiate  areas of 2009 Agreement.

    “This is while also receiving briefs from the MDAs mentioned above that act as advisers, before making any counter offer to ASUU and other unions.

    “Unfortunately, ASUU insisted that these relevant advisory MDAs recue themselves from the sitting of the Briggs Committee accusing them of non-cooperation,’’ he said.

    According to Ngige, due to exclusion engineered by ASUU, and the arising complaints to the Chief of Staff to the President and the Minister of labour and Employment  by the concerned MDAs.

    He said  the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Labour set up an inter-Ministerial/Agency sub Committee comprising the affected MDA’s under the Minister of State Budget and Planning.

    He added that they were to quickly look into Prof. Briggs Committee report which to all intents and purpose was still a proposal in June 2022 at the government side meeting.

    The minister added that the assignment was to be completed with the Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages and given two weeks to come up with their recommendation.

    “Having rounded off its work, the committee returned as verdict;  that with the  Prof. Briggs Proposal of 109 -185 per cent increase in the university wage structure, the Federal Government will incur an additional N560 billion as salaries alone.

    “On top of the present N412B, less all other allowances such as Earned Academic Allowances and fringe benefits , teaching allowance, field trip, responsibility and post graduate supervision, allowances, Hazard allowances  which were to gulp another N170B.

    “In all, the sum of N1.12 Trillion will be needed to pay the salaries and allowances of university lecturers and other staff in the university system.

    “At present, the wage bill of the university staff and their colleagues in Teaching Health Systems gulp nearly 50 per cent of the total  federal government staff personnel cost/wages,’’ he said.

    The minister said that currently, the Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages had finished the review of the Prof. Nimi Briggs proposal and will shortly submit same to the President.

    He added that this cleared every doubt that there was an agreement before the President waiting for his signature.  There is none!

    Ngige however, said that following the tripartite plus meeting of May 12, at the Presidential Villa, NITDA was directed to subject the three platforms of IPPIS, UTAS and UPPPS to test.

    He said the fresh test on UTAS and on UPPPS has been concluded and results awaited while that of IPPIS is still in the works  but all will be concluded in the next one week .

    “We finally use this medium to  once more appeal to ASUU and their sister university unions  whose complaints except the Renegotiation of their 2013/2014 Agreement, to go back to school.

    “This is knowing full well that these ceaseless strikes de-market our universities and certificates there from, while government  labours with their leaders to produce a standard pay rise as soon as possible,’’ he said.

  • Strike: We’re not beggars, hunger won’t force us to resume – ASUU tells FG

    Strike: We’re not beggars, hunger won’t force us to resume – ASUU tells FG

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said its members are not beggars and the stoppage of their salaries by the government won’t force them to call off their strike.

    The leadership of the union also commended the members for keeping faith with the union despite the hardship imposed on their families as a result of the No-Work-No-Pay.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports ASUU on 14th February 2022 announced a one-month warning strike, followed by another eight-week strike before it eventually commenced its indefinite strike.

    This followed the failure of the government to meet some lingering demands of the union.

    The continued strike led to the imposition of No-Work-No-Pay by the Federal Government.

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said the directive was in compliance with Section 43 of the Labour Law.

    Though some of the demands by the union are still undergoing negotiations, ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, expressed optimism that the union was on the threshold of victory.

    He however noted that the resolve of the union forced the FG to engage in negotiations.

    He said, “As the struggle continues, our members are commended for their commitment and steadfastness in the patriotic struggle for the survival of the university system in our country.

    “Our members are particularly applauded for keeping faith with the union in spite of the hardship imposed on our families as a result of the stoppage of salaries.

    “They have made the statement loud and clear that we are not beggars and, as a result, hunger is an impotent instrument to break our resolve.

    “Our cast-iron resolve has forced the government to sit down and negotiate with us. We have had five meetings with the Federal Government team and two meetings with the Minister of Education.

    “The renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement is progressing smoothly and has reached an advanced stage. “However, we must remain focused to the end of this struggle. UTAS (University Transparency and Accountability Solution) has been tested for the third time.

    “So far, NITDA (National Information Technology Development Agency) has tested UTAS and UPS and will start testing IPPIS next week. We are undeterred by the antics of some government officials in this respect”.

  • ASUU, polytechnic lecturers, others to get N34bn minimum wage arrears – FG

    ASUU, polytechnic lecturers, others to get N34bn minimum wage arrears – FG

    The Federal Government says it will spend about N34 billion as arrears of Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustments in the education sector effective from 2019.

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige said that this was aimed at resolving the lingering crisis in the sector.

    Ngige made this known while speaking with newsmen on the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and others on Tuesday in Abuja.

    Ngige said that the beneficiaries of the Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustments included the members of the striking ASUU and their counterparts in the polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

    According to Ngige, the universities will get N23.5 billion, the polytechnics N6 billion and the Colleges of Education N4 billion, bringing the total sum to N33.5 billion.

    The minister, while giving an update on the ongoing strike, said committees were set up during the last tripartite meeting of the government and university based unions.

    He said they were given a fortnight to turn in their report, adding they were still working and the reports of the committees were being expected at the end of the week.

    “Those committees are working. The one on NITDA is testing the three platforms, the government’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

    “Also the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) of ASUU and the Universities Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (UPPPS) of the non-teaching staff.

    “They have started the testing last Thursday. The National Salaries, Wages and Incomes Commission (NSWIC) has issued their amendment circulars.

    “The unions also have copies to take care of responsibility and hazard allowances wherever it has not been properly captured.’’

    Ngige assured that there might likely be wage adjustments as the government intensified efforts to streamline wages through the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.

    “For example, we have done for the police. It wasn’t envisaged that we should do it in pockets. But you can see that police has been done.

    “You can also see university teachers saying that their own should be done immediately since we have done police. So, something is being done. It was part of the 2009 negotiation they had with the government then.

    “So, the committee of Prof. Briggs is on it, discussing with the university unions and their employer, the Federal Ministry of Education. They will bring up something for government to see.

    “There are other people. The doctors are complaining about brain drain, this and that. Their hazard allowance has to be touched and it was touched by close to 300 per cent.

    “From N5, 000 paid across the board for each person, the least person in the health sector is getting N15, 000, while the big ones are getting N45, 000. So, that is the quantum leap,” he added.

    The minister, therefore, appealed to ASUU and other university-based unions once more to suspend their strike so that academic activities could resume once again in public universities across the country.

  • Are you not ashamed to be called a Nigerian? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Are you not ashamed to be called a Nigerian? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    I had wanted to write about the perfidy represented by the trio of the disgraceful Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele’s conduct; the unbelievable mumu-ishness of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan; and the shamelessness of Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige. But a late night discussion with a friend, whose medical condition kept him in the United Kingdom for almost one year, and hundreds of thousand of Pound Sterling later, changed all that. He had just returned with barely the skin of his life. God, and not medical science, has kept him alive. He is back and is immediately thrown into the abyss we have descended as nation. A symptom of which is darkness generated by 3000 megawatts of power shared by 200 million people.

    Our discussion; no, lamentation, stole my peace of mind, gave me a sleepless night. I tossed and tossed and wished in vain for sleep. My brain just couldn’t find enough rest to fall asleep. A resort to self help pills failed abysmally. A sense of shame, which is our collective lot, enveloped me. The comedic political nuisance sprouting all over Nigeria, ensured that sleep went on an uninvited sabbatical. How I wished, over and over again, that I didn’t have that discussion about Nigeria. But too late.

    My mind, on its own will went on an excavation of our history. It dived deep and was relentless. The mission being to find out where the rain started beating us. Where we fell into the cesspit. How far we have sunk. What, if anything, can be done to dig ourselves out of the deep morass. Questions kept popping up as I struggled with facts and history: where did we get it all wrong, who were the major actors? How could we not sustain the golden Yakubu GowonYakubu Gowon era in which all the major infrastructure, we have now destroyed or are pillaging, were conceived and built?

    Yes, the military misadventure into politics is the progenitor. It spurned the catastrophic civil war, it brought near-nitwits into power. It destroyed the foundation every developing nation relies on: its civil service and recruitment of quality manpower to man its leadership positions. It brought the brash but zealous Murtala Mohammed who destroyed a significant level of the nation’s development by destroying the civil service. He brought to an end the era of the Super Permanent Secretaries and well crafted and executed development plans which saw the Gowon regime transforming the economy and positioning it for massive development.

    The General Olusegun Obasanjo regime built major infrastructure by following the vision to make Nigeria a shining light in Africa and the world. This was a vision encapsulated in the already in-place development plan. The successive regimes that overthrew the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari put the final nail on the nation’s coffin. Surprisingly, the man at the helms of affairs in Aso Rock today, General Muhammadu Buhari, was a major player in the downward slope into the abyss. It is hardly a surprise that the leopard has not changed its skin. His current seven year tenure, as a civilian president, so far, has been an unmitigated disaster. He has taken the nation so far back that the average Nigerian life was better off in 1970 when the civil war ended than it is today. His is an incompetent, divisive and anachronistic government.

    The little modicum of quality civil service ethics left has since been thrown into the garbage dump by President Buhari’s clannish and fundamentalist adherence to religion and region. The only qualification needed under his government is not competence and top range education but what the Igbos describe as mma-madu! You have to be related somehow to Buhari, come from a certain section of Nigeria and practice a particular strand of his religion; and or be affiliated to one of his minions. That is all that qualifies you. There is no department or ministry today where competence, quality, experience and right education have not been sacrificed.

    In 62 years of unbelievable wealth thrown on our lap by God, we are today not just the poverty capital of the world, we are the laughing stock to our poor neighbouring countries and indeed the entire world. Take for example, Ghana and Benin Republic. Today, they are ranked far higher than Nigeria in the human capital development index. They are more stable, more secure and rated higher on the world development scale than richly blessed Nigeria. Ghanaians indeed mock Nigerians as a stupid set of people, a failed state. Small Ghana with GDP less than Lagos, Rivers and maybe a few other states. They laugh at our stupidity, at our self-inflicted power situation where probably hundreds of billions of dollars have been sunk into darkness. They laugh at our destroyed educational sector. The laugh at the fact that poor to middle level Nigerians, who cannot afford to pay the higher fees in Europe, Canada and the Americas, now flood Ghana and Benin Republic mushroom universities. They laugh at the trash piece that is now our Naira.

    And it is not their fault. Like everything else, we have destroyed the outstanding educational system, which till about the middle of the 1980s, was among the best worldwide. Yet, a failed Labour Minister, Chris Ngige, whose seven years tenure has seen to the total destruction of all that is left of our tertiary education wants to be president. All public universities since the Buhari regime started have spent most of the years on shut down. Yet, Ngige was bold enough to fork out N100 million to buy the expression of interest and nomination forms of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential forms. He too, unbelievably wanted to be president of Nigeria. A man who has failed so spectacularly in the assignment he was given wants to be the Lord of the manor.

    From being a nation which enjoyed medical tourism from other nations, whose universities competed with the best in the world; from being a nation which produced the Chinua Achebes, the Wole Soyinkas, Cyprian Ekwensis and the legion of literary scholars, a nation which produced the Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Ahmadu Bello, Sarduana Sokoto, we have become a nation of beggarly Lilliputians. We have become a nation where the worst of us rides roughshod over the best of us. We have become a nation whose best brain drains or get sentenced to stew in poverty, unrecognised and unappreciated. We have become a nation where a professor earns less than a local government councillor in real terms. Hence it is no surprise that most of our best brains, in every field, have fled and are fleeing the nation to go to other nations where they are valued and appreciated.

    Today, following the bad example set by President Muhammadu Buhari, who has failed in almost every area of governance, all who can afford it, not wanting to take the risk of getting treated in a Nigerian hospital, are all flooding Europe, India and America for treatment for illnesses and diseases which were easily handled by our doctors even as far back as 50 years ago.

    What kept me awake all night is the fact that we are a nation that likes living in denial. Like the ostrich, instead of confronting the myriad of problems confronting the nation and Nigerians, we bury our heads in the sands of self deluding politics, ethnicity and religion. We are engrossed in the feverish pitch of 2023 elections as if that is a be all ultimate solution to all our problems. And taking their clue, a sleuth of no good politicians are flooding the land wanting to replace the incompetence of the Buhari regime with a more confounding incompetence. That accounts for the lack of vision, the lack of detailed plans by any of the aspirants on how to tackle the devilish evils roaming naked around the country.

    It is clear that until the nation lines behind a shared vision, until our best brains are allowed to take over the reins, until we return excellency to our civil service and governance, until we decide to place the education of our youths on the top cylinder and rejig our health system, hoping that the 2023 presidential and other elections will somehow, by some fluke, produce the leaders who will drag us back from the precipice of the looming implosion will just be another pipe dream, a mirage never held in pursuit.

  • STRIKE: FG to resume talks with ASUU next week

    STRIKE: FG to resume talks with ASUU next week

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has said talks with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will resume next week.

     

    Disclosing this on Friday, while making the opening remarks at a meeting between the government side and the striking National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) in his office, Ngige noted that the resumed talks would be with a view to ending the prolonged closure of Nigerian public universities.

     

    Ngige asserted that multiple industrial disputes in the education sector could have been averted if the unions in the sector took advantage of his open-door policy like those in the health sector, which he said culminated in the peace currently enjoyed in that sector.

     

    Ministry of Labour and Employment, Patience Onuobia, the minister who also decried the rivalry between the education unions, noted that everybody is important in the university system.

     

    He assured that the government was tackling all the disputes in the education sector holistically, knowing full well that none of the unions could function effectively without the others.

     

    He said: “If you are from any union, you don’t need to book an appointment to see me. The doctors started using that advantage and JOHESU also did the same. That is why the Health Sector is quiet.

     

    “But the education unions don’t take advantage of my open door policy. We don’t have to cry over spilt milk. Let us look at your issues to see the ones we can handle immediately, the ones we can do in the medium term and the ones we can do in the long term.

  • ASUU strike: Ngige accuses lecturers of making negotiation difficult

    ASUU strike: Ngige accuses lecturers of making negotiation difficult

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige has accused universities lecturers of making negotiation with the federal government difficult, blaming the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for prolonging the industrial strike embarked on since February 14th.

    Ngige, who disclosed this in a statement issued by Patience Onuobia, Acting Head of Press and Public Relation in the ministry on Tuesday in Abuja, was reacting to the insinuations that he was responsible for the ongoing action by the union.

    Ngige, however, said he had done what many could not do to forestall strikes by ASUU and according to him, negotiation now is being made impossible by ASUU.

    “For example, ASUU insists that the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) should take the payment platform, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) that it developed.

    “That they should deploy it for payment in the university whether it is good or bad, whether it failed integrity and vulnerability test or not.

    “ASUU members know that fraud committed on payment platforms can run into billions. If a hacker adds zeros to hundreds, it becomes billions,” he said.

    Ngige noted that NITDA brought out the report of its test on UTAS, noting that it passed the user acceptability but failed vulnerability and integrity tests which were the two critical tests that prevented fraud.

    “As a conciliator, I spoke to ASUU and NITDA to continue the test and see whether they could make up the lapses and arrive at 100 per cent because that is what NITDA insists on.

    According to him, NITDA said they cannot even take the platform at 99.9 per cent of vulnerability and integrity. That they can’t take that risk on a payment system, that it can be hacked into.

    “These are the issues. So if you hear someone saying Ngige is responsible, it is wrong. I’m not the one that implements. I’m the conciliator.

    “I conciliate so that there will be no more warfare and even in conciliation, once I apprehend, the parties go back to status quo ante- which means, you call off the strike.

    “ASUU should have by now called off the strike because that’s what the law says.

    “I have earlier, while we convened the National Labour Advisory Council in Lagos last month, urged the NLC to which ASUU is affiliated, to intervene in this respect,” Ngige said.

    He also revealed that Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee on Renegotiation of 2009 Agreement which ASUU shunned despite several appeals to them had rounded off its assignment and submitted to the Ministry of Education.

    He added that “we will follow it from there. There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel”.

    The minister, however, noted that he had successfully conciliated 1,683 industrial disputes since assumption of office in 2015.

    He said that the role of the Minister of Labour was to conciliate disputes and did not include the implementation of agreements reached with parties.

    “However, when conciliation fails, the Minister is under obligation by sections 9 and 14 of Trade Disputes Act, Cap T8 , Laws of the Federation of Nigeria to transmit the results of the negotiation to the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) or to National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN).

    “In the ongoing ASUU imbroglio, I’m the conciliator. I bring them to negotiate with their employers.

    “That is the Ministry of Education and the National University Commission as well as IPPIS, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, all under the Ministry of Finance.

    “At the end of every negotiation, we put down what everybody has agreed on in writing and add timelines for implementation,” he said.

    The Minister also noted that ASUU strike had been a recurrent decimal in the last 20 years, adding that they had gone on strike, 16 times. So, there is nothing new as such.

    “What is new however is that I have done what Napoleon could not do,’’ he said.

    Ngige, in another development, mourned the death of former Minister of Labour, Graham Douglas.

    He described the late Douglas as a “quintessential politician” who excelled in labour administration at the incipient era of this democratic dispensation.

    Ngige added that Nigeria has lost a patriot.

    “Graham Douglas will be remembered for effectively managing labour between 1999 and 2000, a very difficult period for the tripartite community, having just emerged from long military dictatorship,” he said.

    He prayed God Almighty to comfort his family and grant him eternal rest.

  • APC presidential candidate, Adamu Garba seeks on Twitter #100m nomination form for party

    APC presidential candidate, Adamu Garba seeks on Twitter #100m nomination form for party

    Similar to Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, failed plan to spend N50 million on the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential nomination forms ahead of the 2023 general elections, another presidential candidate of the party, Adamu Garba, has taken to social media to solicit for funds to enable him purchase it.

     

    Recall that Ngige’s plans were disrupted after APC pegged the price for presidential forms at N100 million, leaving him to say his ‘supporters’ will raise the money.

     

    Adamu, a strong supporter of the APC, was taken aback by the price of the form calling it “insensitive”.

     

    Taking to his Twitter page, he wrote: “I’ve made my life so transparent that if the young generations of Nigeria follow me on Business and Politics, you’ll find it easy to navigate and build on my successes and avoid my failures without the need for reading a book.

     

    “Follow me. Somebody got to do this for our generation.

     

    “Dear Nigerians,

    “My project with you has started. To those of you who made pledges of donation, here is the account number

    *********** | Zenith.

     

    “100M for the form is insensitive, but our collective contribution to get this form will send a strong signal that we care about Nigeria.”

     

    The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had on Wednesday, fixed the cost of its interest form at N30 million and the nomination form at N70 million.

     

    A 50 per cent discount was, however, approved for candidates less than 40 years and free tickets for women and persons living with disabilities.

  • 2023 Presidential Race: Ngige to make pronouncement on Tuesday

    2023 Presidential Race: Ngige to make pronouncement on Tuesday

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, has said that he would make a pronouncement on his journey to the presidency on Tuesday.

    Ngige said this at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, at a reception organised by members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) South-East Progressive Forum, according to a statement made available by his media office in Abuja.

    The group is among the numerous other political and apolitical groups across the country, urging Ngige to join the presidential race.

    The statement said Ngige, while addressing the crowd at the airport, said he had consulted widely and the time has come for him to speak.

    He recalled that last December he received a similar call from his brothers of the APC stock and some that have not even practiced politics who came to his hometown, Alor, and pressurised him to join the presidential race.

    ”Make no mistake about it, the presidency is due to us in the Southern part of Nigeria. It is also truism that of all states in the South, only the South-East has not tasted the presidency. That gives much weight to the demand you are making.

    “In PDP, they are arguing whether it will be North or South. In our own party, APC, we have already agreed that it is South. I told my supporters when they came on December 31 last year that I will speak after the spiritual season of Lent, to enable me consult my God, angels and archangels. Easter is tomorrow.

    ”It is the resurrection day. We shall rise with the resurrection and after Easter Monday, I will make a pronouncement on my journey to the presidency,” he said.

    Ngige who is also a former Anambra State Governor said he had done consultation with mortal and immortal people and they are now going to speak.

    According to him, “I have ears and heard your message clearly. You should all come to my hometown, Alor, in Idemili South local government area of Anambra State on Tuesday. I will make a pronouncement that day.

    Regarding the issue of consensus among the APC aspirants in the South-East, he said the issue has not arisen now, saying such discussion would come after the expression of interest and buying of forms.

    He commended members of the APC South-East Progressive Forum for trooping out in large numbers to receive him and prayed God to honour each and every one of them the way they have honoured him.

    Earlier, the spokesman of the group, Mr Tony Chime, told Ngige that they trooped out to plead with himto join the race for the presidency.

    Chime said they had screened many people presenting themselves for the post of president, but are yet to see the material wanted.

    “We appeal to you, our father, brother and son to please come out and join the race. We know that it is the turn of the South and when it comes down South, we know that it is the turn of the South-East and you are eminently qualified to deliver,” he said.

    Ngige later paid a visit to the Governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, as part of his consultations with political leaders across the country.

  • NAUS appeals to FG, ASUU to return to the negotiating table

    NAUS appeals to FG, ASUU to return to the negotiating table

    “We want to use this press conference to appeal to the government again, to consider the plights of many of our members who have been affected seriously by this strike, and to also plead with the Federal Government to revisit its position on ASUU and the need for both parties to return to the negotiating table so that all of the issues can be resolved once and for all.”

     

    These were the words of students under the aegis of the National Association of University Students, NAUS, Osun Campus Monitoring Committee, while urging the Federal Government and striking lecturers to return to the negotiation table and resolve the ongoing crisis.

     

    In a press statement released by NAUS on Friday, signed by its Chairman, Secretary-General, and Publicity Secretary; Eruobami Ayobami, Olaniyan Saleem, and Lawal Idris, respectively, made available to our correspondent, the student body bemoaned the continued closure of schools following the strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

     

    It said the strike which was already over 60 days was beginning to take a negative turn on students, particularly now that they seemed not to know when the challenge was coming to an end.

     

    The statement read in parts, “In view of the prolonged nature of the strike, it is beginning to take a negative turn on our students, particularly now that we all seem not to know when this challenge is going to finally come to an end.

     

    “We believe that if the government is concerned about the deplorable education system in Nigeria, it won’t have any problems implementing the agreement they freely entered with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

     

    NAUS stated that, in its previous statement on March 21, it had called the attention of the government to the issues affecting Nigerian students.

     

    It said further, “we had expected that between then and now, something tangible would have been done by government or its agencies to assuage the strike but alas, Government doesn’t think it’s important to resolve the problems over 60 days since the strike started! We, therefore, want to reiterate that as an association, we have vowed not to go mute/or be silent until the necessary actions are taken.

     

    “We state unequivocally that ASUU’s demands are correct and we do believe it’s for the progress and stability of our university system. For us, we do not see where the following demands by the academic staff union are faulty.

     

    “The Integrated Personnel and Payrolls Information System (IPPIS) developed the government to pay civil servants and strangely Academic staff has since shown failures and even causing major challenge within the university system. Even, the Government, recently, in the national dailies, reported that the IPPIS software was hacked! That is a major revelation of the weakness of that platform as a payment system, government should rather embrace the UTAS payment system that ASUU developed.”

     

    The student body also called on the government to pay the allowances owed to the lecturers and to equally lift the dying infrastructures on campuses to meet the 21st-century standards.

     

    It concluded, “We are begging all the players involved in this matter to shield their swords for the sake of education and our future.

     

    “Please, let a stop be to all the mischief and hanky-panky that have continued to draw us back as a nation. This is what the Nigerian university students want.”

  • ASUU strike: We are talking with NITDA to bend on UTAS – Ngige

    ASUU strike: We are talking with NITDA to bend on UTAS – Ngige

    Dr Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment has said the Federal Government (FG) is currently in talks with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to reconsider its position on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Dr Ngige made this known while appealing to members of the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to immediately call off their prolonged industrial action.

    Ngige said this on Thursday in Abuja, while interacting with newsmen after receiving notification letter of his nomination by Sun Newspaper Publishing Limited for the award of ‘Public Service Icon 2021’.

    The the striking lecturers have been on strike for over months to press home their demands.

    The lecturers are agitating for the implementation of the memorandum of action agreed between the government and ASUU, including improved funding and removal from IPPIS.

    However, the minister called on ASUU to return to their students for resumption of academic work in the public universities.

    Ngige said the federal government remained unrelenting in its efforts towards addressing all the industrial disputes in the university system, involving ASUU and the other unions.

    “Everything contained in the December 2020 agreement were religiously executed to the extent that the federal government aggregately paid N92 billion from the 2021 budget.

    “This is to cover the revitalisation funds and Earned Academic Allowances/Earned Allowances for non-teaching staff,” he said.

    Ngige also maintained that regarding the renegotiation of conditions of service of the university lecturers, that the renegotiation must be guided by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) principle of ability to pay.

    He recalled that the former renegotiation committee headed by Prof. Jubril Munzali made a proposal of 200 per cent rise in emoluments of university workers, but the federal government through the Ministry of Education said it cannot pay.

    The minister said the university system and the teaching hospitals consume two thirds of all the emoluments currently paid from the national budget of the country.

    This meant that an increase for the lecturers would occasion upward review of the salaries of allied professionals in the health sector, based on their different salary structures, he explained.

    “There is no point giving you percentages on paper that nobody can pay. Munzali worked out a percentage which placed the university workers on about 200 per cent pay rise.

    “The Federal Government through the Education Ministry said they cannot pay. The Ministry of Finance said they cannot pay. They came to me and I said nothing is wrong with renegotiation because even if a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is signed, it could be renegotiated.

    “The document produced by Munzali was not signed by both ASUU and the Federal Government. It is a proposal. Munzali’s committee had elapsed.

    “The Education Ministry didn’t act as I wanted. The Minister was away and his lieutenants didn’t do anything for five months, contrary to my expectations.

    “The minister has set up another committee headed by Prof. Nimi Briggs. They have been working and I have given them six weeks to come up with a proposal,” he added.

    On the payment platform for university lecturers, Ngige said NITDA informed him that UTAS proposed by ASUU passed user acceptability test but failed integrity and credibility test, which form the bulwark against hacking.

    He added that “NITDA said UTAS failed, ASUU said we didn’t fail. As we were discussing, ASUU went on strike.

    “In the face of this disagreement between ASUU and NITDA, we are talking with NITDA to bend backwards so that there will be a handshake between UTAS and the government certified IPPIS platform.

    “After embarking on strike, ASUU has gone back to what I proposed to them,’’ he said.

    Ngige also faulted the demand by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) for a High-Powered Panel constituted of members with requisite mandates to resolve within 21 days the foregoing issues militating against industrial harmony in the system.

    Recall that NLC and its affiliate unions in the education sector held a meeting on April 13, to take reports on the ongoing industrial dispute cum action in Nigeria’s university system and resolved to make the call.

    According to Ngige, President Muhammadu Buhari had already put in place his own high-powered team, comprising his Chief of Staff, the Ministers of Labour, Education, Finance, Communication and Digital Economy.

    Earlier, the management of the Sun Newspapers led by its Managing Director, Mr Onuoha Ukeh, described Ngige as a quintessential public servant whose contributions to national development were enviable.

    Ukeh described him as “an administrative czar and a nonconformist politician” whose 34 months as governor of Anambra revolutionalised the state.

    “Ngige, as governor, transformed Awka to a befitting capital city during his tenure, tarring all the roads in the GRA Awka, dualised Nnamdi Azikiwe Road and put streetlights, among others,’’ he said.

    He also noted that the minister’s labour diplomacy enabled the ministry resolved through social dialogue, over 1,700 industrial disputes while restoring Nigeria to the governing board of the ILO.