TheNewsGuru

Tag: Chris Ngige

  • Ngige advises ASUU to picket Federal Ministry of Education for their demands to be met

    Ngige advises ASUU to picket Federal Ministry of Education for their demands to be met

    Labour and Employment Minister, Chris Ngige, has advised the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to picket the Federal Ministry of Education than embarking on strike, for their demands to be met.

     

    ASUU had said there would be no resumption in public universities until the re-negotiated 2009 agreement is signed, implemented and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) deployed.

     

    In his words: “I am not the Minister of Education. I cannot go to the Education Minister and dictate to him how to run his place. But I told ASUU that they should be bombarding the Federal Ministry of Education for this to be moved forward.

     

    “There are many ways to do so. If you go to the Labour Act, there is something called picketing. You can picket. A strike is an ultimate thing. Picketing means that you can stay in the corridor, clapping or singing. Workers are permitted to do so. But I am tired that every time there is a disagreement, it is a strike.

     

    “And the bosses in the Federal Ministry of Education don’t feel the strike. It is the children and some of us, as parents that have our children in public schools.”

     

    The minister gave this advice in a statement on Monday, in Abuja, by the Head of Press and Public Relations, Patience Onuobia, after a meeting with members of the government’s team on the 2009 Federal Government/University-based Unions’ Agreement Renegotiation Committee, led by its Chairman, Prof. Nimi Briggs.

     

    The statement in parts read: “I started pushing to see that things were done. What the Munzali Committee came up with is a proposal. Both Munzali and ASUU did not sign. At our last meeting in February, before ASUU proceeded on strike, we said everyone should go back to his principal.

     

    “I asked the Education Minister several times what they had done with the document. We later got information on areas of disagreement. There is nothing wrong with that. It is bound to happen. I told ASUU to put up a committee; they said the Munzali Committee had expired.

     

    “As a conciliator, I have to make use of the labour instruments at my disposal. The bosses in the Federal Ministry of Education do not feel the strike. There are things that are above me.”

     

    The minister said the Federal Government remained committed to the renegotiation of the conditions of service for all workers in public universities across the country.

     

    Ngige said the Nigerian university system produced him and he remained proud of it.

     

    “When we went to universities here, I knew the course content and as a medical doctor, the doctors we trained here are better than the ones trained abroad. That is one of the counsels I gave to my children. You can do your first degree. One got admission in Ghana, I said no. Others got in Canada and the UK, but I refused.

     

    “If anybody is interested in the welfare of workers in Nigerian universities, I am number one. I told my colleagues that what university professors showed us here as their salaries is unacceptable,” he said.

     

    Prof. Briggs, who is also the Pro-Chancellor of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndifu Alike, Ebonyi State, said the re-negotiation committee was consulting with all stakeholders with a view to finding a lasting solution to issues in dispute.

  • Electoral Act: Ngige, Fashola, Amaechi cleared to vote at APC national convention

    Electoral Act: Ngige, Fashola, Amaechi cleared to vote at APC national convention

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige; Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi have been cleared to vote in the ongoing national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The APC made special concessions for the serving political appointees, who have previously served as Governors in their respective States in other for them to be able to vote at the national convention.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Amaechi has served as the governor of Rivers State, Ngige served as governor of Anambra State, and Fashola served as governor of Lagos State.

    According to the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, who is the Chairman of the publicity sub-committee for the APC national convention, the former governors would be given concessions because the party’s constitution makes them statutory delegates.

    “Our delegates’ lists are statutory delegates. So if you have a former president as a political appointee, if you have a former senator as a political appointee, these are already automatic delegates.

    “Let’s not confuse the two just because being an appointee doesn’t necessarily take you out of being a delegate, because our delegates are classified clearly. Former presidents from our party, former elected personalities, party officials and the rest are delegates.

    “So if you are talking of the ones we have submitted now, we don’t have commissioners, we don’t have advisers, we don’t have all those unless somebody particularly who was a former this or former that. In that case, just being an appointee doesn’t completely exclude such a person from being a delegate,” Governor Sule emphasized.

  • Strike: We did not approve UTAS, it failed integrity test – NITDA tells ASUU

    Strike: We did not approve UTAS, it failed integrity test – NITDA tells ASUU

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said the Universities Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) presented by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for the payment of lecturers in the country failed its integrity test.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa made this known when he fielded questions from State House correspondents at the end of a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.

    Recall that ASUU had in December 2021 celebrated the supposed endorsement and approval of UTAS by NITDA after its president, Emmanuel Osodeke revealed the payment platform was approved by the federal government agency.

    “NEC is pleased that the end-user evaluation report overwhelmingly endorses UTAS for immediate deployment by the government for Nigerian universities. On our part, ASUU is fully prepared to address all the technical observations made by NITDA in order to make this happen,” Osodeke said at the time.

    However, Inuwa has said the NITDA never endorsed UTAS, stressing that the platform failed integrity test, ad that the federal government is still waiting for ASUU to upgrade and return the platform after addressing technical issues observed.

    TNG reports ASUU has embarked on one a month warning strike on February 14 to press home their demands involving about N1.3 trillion. The union also wants the federal government to adopt the UTAS payment platform to replace the Integrated Personnel and Payment Information System (IPPIS), which Osodeke had described as evil.

    Reacting to the contentious issues that led to the ongoing ASUU strike, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, said when he received a letter from the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, requesting a review of the submission and the technical ability of the software of the system, he forwarded the request to NITDA

    He said: “NITDA conducted their own analysis, their own testing and sent same back to me, and I drafted a cover letter I forwarded to the Minister of Labour and Employment, and I copied the two Ministers of Education, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, and also office of the Accountant General of the Federation and even NUC (National University Commission).”

    Pantami, however, directed the director-general of NITDA, who sat beside him, to give the situation report on the matter.

    Inuwa said: “When we received the request to review UTAS, you know, building a complex system like UTAS that involves employees’ personal data, and also payment system, we have to subject it to best practice tests before approving.

    “Normally, when we are reviewing that kind of system, we perform three tests.

    “Firstly, because when you’re building a system, it’s not just about the technology, you need to consider the people that will use this system and the process.

    “If you don’t align people, process and technology, you will never get results. No matter how good the technology is, if the people don’t understand how to use it, they won’t use it. And if the process is different from the way the people work, also, they won’t use it.

    “So that is a process of building technology.

    “You need to get the business requirement. What do you want to achieve? So it’s not the technology that will come first, it is the business requirement, what do you want to achieve, then you need to identify the capabilities you need to achieve, that is your business objective.

    “Part of the capability is the technology you need to bring in and the people that will operate the technology before you start thinking of the technology, because technology is always a tool that will help you to achieve an objective or to do your work. If you bring the tool before knowing what to do with it, it will be useless.

    “So, when they came, we said okay, fine, we will do a user acceptance test. ASUU you’ve built this system, but you are not the one that will use the system. There are people in bursary, and in finance that will use this system.

    “So we need to do users’ acceptance test with them, let them come, show them the system, let them see if it can help them to do the work there.

    “Secondly, we said we’ll do a vulnerability test to test the security integrity of the system. Because if there is vulnerability, people can hack it, can change it, and it involves financial transactions. Adding zero means a lot. So we say we need to do that.

    “And also we need to do a stress test. You can build a system on your laptop or on a small computer, use it but when you put so much data it will crash, we need to do the stress test to make sure that system can do.

    “This is on the system. Then also you need to have a data centre where you need to put that system because just having a system without the data centre it will not operate also.

    “So, we did all these three tests with them. And the system couldn’t pass. We wrote the reports and submitted it back to the Minister, which he forwarded to all relevant institutions, including ASUU.

    “As we speak now, ASUU is working, trying to fix all the issues we highlighted with the system and we will review it again, but that is just one half of the story.’’

    According to him, ASUU is yet to inform the federal government where the data centre of the system will be installed.

    “The second half of the story also, we need to find where to put that system like IPPIS; we have a data centre built for it. ASUU where are we going to put it?

    “That means we need to have the data centre and also we need to check the data centre to make sure it meets the minimum requirement, because if you put people’s information and the system crashes, how can you pay them salary?

    “You need to build redundancy. There are a lot of things to do. So, but as we speak, they’re trying to fix all the issues we highlighted with the system. Then when we finish that, we need to look at the second half of the story, getting where to install it.”

    Recall that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige had on March 1 briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the progress report over the on-going negotiation between federal government and ASUU.

    Ngige, who spoke to newsmen at the end of the meeting with the president, said the federal government had so far paid over N92 billion as earned allowances and revitalisation fee to federal owned universities across the country.

    He said this was part of the implementation of the 2020 December agreement reached with the ASUU.

  • Four feared dead as Fashola, Buhari’s CoS, Ngige’s convoy crash in Delta

    Four feared dead as Fashola, Buhari’s CoS, Ngige’s convoy crash in Delta

    Four persons are feared dead as the convoy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari; Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; and his counterpart in Labour and Employment, Christ Ngige, crashed during the inspection of a bridge in Asaba, Delta State.

    It was gathered that the accident occurred on Tuesday evening. The driver was said to have lost control of the vehicle conveying security operatives and crashed into a deep pit.

    An eyewitness, John Okorie, said the incident happened when the vehicle conveying the victims was negotiating the bend leading to the construction site of the Second Niger Bridge at the Asaba.

    It was gathered that the police vehicle was speeding to meet up with the ministers’ vehicles when it veered off the road and crashed.

    A Delta Line driver that witnessed the accident explained that “the incident was very fatal. The policeman driver was speeding and while negotiating the bend because of the speed could not control the vehicle. They crashed into a deep pit. I was at the back of the convoy, driving slowly.

    “With the help of other people, we rescued four of them but they were badly injured. They were shouting as the vehicle fell on them.”

    However, the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, DSP Bright Edafe, said he was yet to receive the accident report as of the time of filing this report.

    “I have not received the accident report, I will get back to you,” he stated

  • Why ASUU strike is illegal – Ngige

    Why ASUU strike is illegal – Ngige

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Christ Ngige has explained the position of the law on the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Ngige as saying ASUU was supposed to properly inform him, and the Minister of Education before they began the strike.

    He stressed that after addressing the dispute, howbeit, in consonance with the Labour Act, the striking lecturers were supposed to return to class.

    “ASUU declared a month strike and called it a warning strike. It did not notify their employer, the Ministry of Education, nor did they notify me, the Minister of Labour, that there is a breakdown in negotiation.

    ”I know that they had some discussions which were in limbo but I should be notified properly so that I can arrest the breakdown and bring it forward for proper conciliation.

    “Now, I apprehended the dispute in consonance with the Labour Act. They came for conciliation, only for them to go back and continue the strike. This is illegal. The law is that once a dispute is apprehended, everybody returns to status quo ante.

    “The law also says that if I arrest a dispute and the party or parties are not ready to conform, I should transfer the dispute within 14 days to either the Industrial Arbitration Panel or to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in line with Section 17 of the Trade Disputes Act .

    “But I’m concerned that if I do this suo motu, this will not solve the problem; getting our children back to school outright,” he said.

    Ngige, who made this known on Monday at the opening ceremony of the 2022 edition of the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) in Lagos State, urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to advise ASUU to abide by the provisions of the Trade Disputes Act and call off its ongoing strike.

    “I’m using this opportunity to plead with the NLC to which ASUU is affiliated, to call them to order, make them obey the law, to let them know what the Trade Disputes Act says.

    ”As university teachers who are even teaching industrial law, to abide by the law. They should call off that strike. That strike is not appropriately instituted.

    “I have conciliated and made sure the issues in disputes have been decisively been dealt with,” he said.

    Ngige also urged the Council to discuss, as part of its agenda, a workable recipe that appropriately conciliates disputes with associations that are not properly registered as trade unions, to ensure that they fully abide by the provisions of the law.

    “What will be the relationship with workers organisations that are not properly registered as trade unions? The labour Act is there and it says the minister can discuss with them. But they do not fully conform with legal provisions.

    “This is, especially in terms of style of negotiation and conciliation. NLAC should therefore come to the aid of the country here.

    “Even though the Trade Disputes Act permits the Minister to apprehend and deal with these workers that have not been registered as unions, you can also see that when dealing with them, you encounter problems.

    “This is because they do not fully understand the nuisances or obey the labour laws as it should be.

    “If you are a union, you give adequate notice before proceeding on strike. If you are a union too and your strike is apprehended, you go back to your work while necessary adjustment is made to give you justice.

    “The NLAC is expected to get the workers side of the tripartite live up to their responsibilities in this regard,” he said.

    The minister noted that some associations in critical sectors of health and education such as Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) are in actual fact, not properly unionised.

    According to him, the NMA is not a trade union, the NARD is not a trade union. They are associations of workers.

    Ngige recalled the numerous benefits of the Council especially as they relate to the review of the labour laws and adoption of the various conventions of the ILO, and commended the Federal Government for moving ahead with global best practices even while working to adopt the conventions.

    The minister referred to Convention 102 which is on social security, listing the pillars to include comprehensive medical care, compensation for accidents at work, workers insurance and maternal health.

    He noted that the Employee Compensation Act 2010, National Health Insurance Scheme as well maternity and now paternity leave currently being accessed by public servants are in this direction.

    He however restated the commitment of the ministry to ensuring regular meeting of the council.

    Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the chairman of the Council, Mr Peter Tarfa, said the meeting was a demonstration of the ministry’s commitment to regular meeting of the NLAC.

    He added that this is to strengthen the council in its role as the apex body charged with the responsibility of ensuring industrial peace and harmony as well as sound labour administration practice.

    He said “national industrial relation space” has remained turbulent despite government’s effort, hence the need for the collective input of all stakeholders for solution.

    “These challenges will therefore require our collective efforts to resolve. To this end, the critical role of the council in promoting industrial peace and harmony must be reinforced to resolve long lasting industrial disputes and enhance national productivity and economic development.”

    He added that the ministry has taken necessary steps to forward to the Federal Executive Council two of the Conventions recommended by the Council in 2021 in Owerri.

    He listed them as the Violence and Harassment in the World of Work Convention 2019 (No. 190) and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No.187).

    According to him, others are in progress.

    He regretted the ravaging effects of COVID-19 on the economy which has compounded the challenges faced by the government and opening up more frontiers of industrial crisis.

    “If we do not halt this ugly trend, attaining Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals which aims to promote inclusive and sustainable economic development and decent work for all would continue to be a mirage,” he said.

    Goodwill messages were presented at the well-attended council by the Country Director of the ILO, Vanessa Lerato Phala, the NLC, TUC and NECA.

  • JUST IN: ‘ASUU will be on strike throughout March until late April’

    JUST IN: ‘ASUU will be on strike throughout March until late April’

    The ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may likely linger until late April.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports ASUU embarked on the strike on February 14th to press home their demands from the federal government.

    However, several engagements between the union and representatives of the government have ended in deadlock.

    According to a tweet on the official Twitter handle of ASUU: “Clearly, ASUU will be on strike throughout the month of March until late April”.

    https://twitter.com/ASUUNGR/status/1500165343523840002

    The union made the tweet following comments by Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige that: “Our panel will use 6 weeks to look into the demands placed by ASUU”:

    Earlier, Ngige had revealed the federal government had set a timeline to address the issue of using UTAS for the payment of salaries of universities’ lecturers.

  • ASUU strike: We will address issue with UTAS within six weeks – Ngige

    ASUU strike: We will address issue with UTAS within six weeks – Ngige

    The federal government of Nigeria has set a timeline for which to address the issue of using University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) for the payment of salaries of universities’ lecturers.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, who made this known on Wednesday, noted that a joint committee to conduct an integrity test on UTAS in conjunction with neutral experts had already been mandated.

    Ngige further noted that the joint committee is expected to conclude the test by March 8, and that once the test is concluded, “we are expected to work on it within six weeks”.

    ASUU had agitated for the adoption of UTAS to pay varsity lecturers’ salaries in preference to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) insisted upon by the Federal Government.

    ASUU called its members out in February on a warning strike to compel the Federal Government to address their demands, some of which had been lingering since 2009.

    Ngige expressed hope when he spoke with newsmen at the end of a conciliation meeting between the government and the union that the one-month warning strike embarked upon by ASUU on February 14 would soon be truncated.

    Ngige said the meeting agreed on many issues and a timeline was scheduled for the implementation of the agreements.

    According to him, ASUU officials agreed to return to their members with offers made by the government and revert to him before the week runs out.

    He noted that many of the items in the 2020 Memorandum of Action (MOA), had been dealt with exhaustively, while some were being addressed.

    “We have only one or two areas that are new. One of the new areas is the renegotiation of the Conditions of Service, which is called the `2009 Agreement’.

    “An agreement was reached in 2009 that their Conditions of Service would be reviewed every five years. It was done in 2014.

    “We started one in which the former UNILAG Pro-Chancellor, Wale Babalakin (SAN), was chairing the committee.

    “’After Babalakin, Prof. Manzali was in charge and the committee came up with a draft document, proposed by the Federal Ministry of Education and ASUU.

    “Today, Manzali’s committee has become defunct because many of the people in the committee are no longer pro-chancellors,’’ the minister explained.

    Ngige said that a new team had been constituted to take a second look at that document.

    “This is to make sure that some of the allowances are not against the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) fixed rates for wages and allowances.

    “If you propose allowances that do not comply with NSIWC rates, the government will not be able accept it.

    “So, it is important that they do the right thing from the beginning so that whatever the committee presents can be approved by the Federal Executive Council,’’ he said.

    Ngige also said that the meeting fixed a timeline of six weeks for the new committee set up by the education ministry to round up everything on the Conditions of Service.

    He noted that on the issue of UTAS for the payment of salaries, the meeting mandated a joint committee to conduct an integrity test on the platform in conjunction with neutral experts.

    The joint committee has ASUU, the National Universities Commission, and the National Information Technology Development Agency as members.

    “We told them to conclude the test by March 8. If they conclude, we are expected to work on it within six weeks,’’ Ngige said.

    Ngige said there was no problem with the issue of Earned Academic Allowances, apart from the reconciliation of payments made in tranches to the university system.

    “Once we conclude the reconciliation, if the Federal Government is in arrears on any tranche, the finance minister will look for money to pay; even though the Federal Government does not have money.

    “Earned allowance is an allowance for excessive workload. Last year, it was paid based on the rule of the thumb theory of 10 per cent of total personnel cost.

    “This year, we have told the National Universities Commission to put up a committee and within the next three weeks, come up with a figure that will be sent to the finance minister.

    “For me, I think, we are on course, ASUU should go to their members, show them offers made to them by government so that they can call off the strike,’’ Ngige said.

    Earlier, the President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said members, students and Nigerian people want to see an action from the government.

    “The education sector in Nigeria is in crisis and money is being lost at the primary, secondary and tertiary education levels,’’ he said.

    He noted the quantum of money that ought to have been used to fund education in Nigeria was being lost to other countries.

    Osodeke, therefore, called for a declaration of emergency in the sector to solve the problem.

  • Strike: FG has paid N92 billion to ASUU – Ngige

    Strike: FG has paid N92 billion to ASUU – Ngige

    The federal government (FG) had so far paid over N92 billion as earned allowances and revitalisation fees to federal owned universities across the country, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige has said.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Ngige made this known while speaking with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on the progress on ongoing negotiations between the FG and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    The Minister of Labour and Employment said the payment was part of the implementation of the 2020 December agreement reached with the ASUU.

    ASUU has embarked on one month warning strike on Feb. 14, to press home their demands of about N1.2trillion. The union also want the FG to adopt the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform.

    “Why I said that the 2020 December agreement we had with ASUU is on course in terms of implementation. There is a line that says the federal government should pay N40 billion for (Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) for ASUU and other unions, that has been paid.

    “N30 billion was also budgeted or was to be paid for revitalization that also was paid late last year. N22.127 billion was agreed also in that December agreement, to be paid from the supplementary budget as Earned Allowances for 2021, that money was also paid last year.

    “It was put in the supplementary budget which was passed around June-July and the money was remitted. So, the government has done that.”

    On the controversial issue of introducing the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform as preferred by ASUU instead of the government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the minister said the matter would be revisited.

    “UTAS, which the universities developed has been subjected to test by the body responsible for that, Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), which ran a user acceptance test also called for integrity and vulnerability test, but in their report, they pointed out to ASUU, the areas of lapses in that platform, which will not make it usable as presently configured.

    “But ASUU has written back to NITDA to say that some of those observations were not correct,” he said.

    According to Ngige, arrangements have now been concluded for the technical teams of NITDA and ASUU to meet and jointly conduct or repeat the test on the UTAS platform, so as to find a solution to the impasse.

  • Strike: FG, ASUU set date to reconvene

    Strike: FG, ASUU set date to reconvene

    The Federal Government says that the meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will be reconvened on Feb. 28, with the hope of calling off the one month warning strike embarked upon by the union.

    Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said this on Wednesday while briefing newsmen at the end of a marathon meeting between the government’s side and ASUU in Abuja.

    That the union had embarked on a nationwide warning strike to press home its members’ demands from Feb.14 .

    The lecturers’ demands include funding of the Revitalisation of Public Universities, Earned Academic Allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and promotion arrears.

    Others are the renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement and the inconsistency in Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

    According to Ngige, the ongoing warning strike is illegal because the demands of the union were already being addressed since last year.

    He said the strike was a clear breach of the law, adding that the union did not go through the normal process before embarking on the industrial action.

    “ASUU did not give the Federal Government the minimum 14 days strike notice prescribed by the law, prior to the strike.

    “I saw their letter in my office on Feb. 18, which is last Friday and as you know, they started their action on Monday, Feb.14. So, it is a clear breach of labour laws. There are violations.

    “If you must notify us of an intending strike action, you give us a minimum of 14 days notice. I pointed it out to them that we are a country guided by laws. Nobody is above the law. They should obey it,” he said.

    Ngige said the Trade Disputes Act permits him to apprehend the strike and having done so, the industrial action should seize.

    The minister also noted that the meeting touched on all the five-point demands of the union and sorted out four of them with timelines for action.

    He explained that the demands were not new areas, but issues already being addressed by the Federal Government.

    “That is why I said we are shocked that they went on this strike. These issues were discussed November/ December last year, up to the time we paid the monies for the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA).

    “It was done last year. We paid N22.172 billion. So, they have received the money.

    “The second area is renegotiation of the 2009 agreement. It talks about renegotiation of their conditions of service, both salaries and allowances.

    “I made it clear to them that there is a government process. The Federal Ministry of Education alone cannot wake up and increase your salaries.

    “There was a committee we empanelled in the Federal Ministry Education to take it up because they are their direct employer.

    “There was a draft proposal, which education ministry has to agree on with them and then break it up to the higher bodies of the government, the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PSC) and from the PSC, it can then go to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval,’’ he said.

    Ngige noted that there were known rates for allowances and any proposal not in sync with what the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) prescribed would not sail through.

    Ngige also made it clear to ASUU that they should follow the normal route and work with the NSIWC and PCS in pursuit of their demands.

    “So, if you are talking about duty tour allowances of a lecturer in the university, who is also a public officer, it must not be above what is presently rolled out as the new guideline.

    “If you are talking about hazard allowance, it must not be above what is obtainable for the university system. You have to benchmark everybody.

    “That is why we benchmark even the doctors in that area of hazard allowance. If you have it that way, you will be able to push it through,’’ he added.

    He advised ASUU not to intimidate the education ministry or its committee into coming up with things that were not in tandem with the normal rate, then the document would not fly.

    He said the meeting agreed that the ministry of education should resuscitate the committee within two weeks to look at the proposal it had with ASUU; “so that they could come up with something for the PSC to have a look and then send it to the FEC.’’

    Regarding the dispute over payment platform for the lecturers, Ngige recalled that the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) finished its assessment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS) developed by ASUU.

    He added that its supervising Minister, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy sent the report to him.

    He said although it was not his duty, but he sent the report to ASUU for information and necessary action, saying that is how government works.

    “I sent that on Dec. 12. They now replied NITDA through me in Feb. 2. So, who has wasted time? I took their report, sent to NITDA, copied Finance, Education and the rest of them.

    “Some of these things are not supposed to be done by my ministry but we are proactive about anything Education and Health.

    “Now, that you have told NITDA that they have not done the right thing, the next logical thing to do like we agreed today is that the two technical teams of ASUU and NITDA should meet and iron out the differences,” he said.

    He said, ”As far as I am concerned, I was doing what I am supposed to do and government is doing what they are supposed to do. We have agreed on UTAS now.

    “But, we are going to do a joint test of both technical teams and find areas of reconciliation because UTAS on its own is a home-grown system and Executive Orders 3 and 5 encourage local contents.

    “So, we should be able to encourage them. That was what I told them but they have this phobia that government does not want anything other than IPPIS.

    “I told them that no matter what solution you have, it must have a handshake with IPPIS, so that government will monitor the movement of their funds,” he added.

    On the outstanding issue of Revitalisation Fund 2022, he said the government’s side, comprising of the Finance and Education Ministers and the Chief of Staff would meet as directed by Mr President, to finalise grey areas on it.

    Ngige urged ASUU to brief their members appropriately and call off the strike before the expiration of the one month duration.

    “By Monday, we would have dealt with some of the issues they are talking about and return to them for further discussion. We will meet again with them and the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and we take it from there,” he said.

  • FG meets with aviation workers to avert strike

    FG meets with aviation workers to avert strike

    The Federal Government has started moves to avert the impending nationwide strike by aviation workers.

    Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said this at a meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Aviation and the aviation workers unions on Monday in Abuja.

    It would be recalled that the aviation workers, under the aegis of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), threatened to withdraw their services by Feb. 8, over alleged poor welfare and unimplemented agreements with the government.

    Ngige, who commended the aviation workers for the matured way they went about their matter, said that they acted in the spirit of labour conciliation.

    He noted that the aviation workers gave the necessary warning to his ministry, but they resolved that their parent ministry should first engage with them.

    ”I am happy that the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Aviation reported that they met with you, but there are two major areas that they could not reach agreement with you.

    ”Therefore, you had to escalate the matter by issuing an ultimatum to close the entire air space. I can see that all of you are here, both the traffic controllers and engineers.

    ”We thought there may be some openings in the air space, but I can see that all of you are united.

    ”I can assure you that we are going to reach agreements here and some of the agreements will be reached with the speed of a flash and we will get back to them,” he said.

    Ngige, however, noted that a conciliation agreement was entered into between NUATE with officials of his ministry, in which they agreed on March 31 as the timeline for the consummation, wondering why such an agreement exists and it is now as if they are on a steeplechase.

    ”But that is not the issue now. I know about your complaints and that is why I called all the stakeholders, including the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) and the Federal Ministry of Aviation.

    ”I had discussed most of the issues with your employers, the Minister and the Permanent Secretary and we decided on a line of action. It is that this government, the President in particular, does not believe that we can disengage people.

    ”The President does not believe a worker is not due his remunerations in terms of salaries and allowances. That is why nobody can complain that we are owing salaries.

    ”Some allowances that have not been fine-tuned, once fine-tuned, the government will pay because the President was a wage earning person all through his military career.

    ”That is why he does not deal with anything pertaining to anybody being owed for work done,” he said.

    He added that as long as he is the Minister of Labour, no government agency will owe anybody salaries and confirmed allowances.

    ”If you cannot pay all, the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations allow you to do ability to pay at the time in question so that you can stagger payment. But, we will agree on things today, put timelines on them and it will be done,” Ngige said.

    Also speaking, Mr Hadi Sirika, Minister of Aviation, said that the agitation for the rights and privileges of workers is lawful and acceptable, especially under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The minister, however, described the agitation as something in-house between the ministry and its parastatals.

    He said that such could be dealt with, hoping that the leadership of the unions would go back to their members with something that they would be happy about.

    Also, speaking on behalf of the aviation unions, Mr Ahmadu Ilitrus, the National President, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSAN), called for urgent measures to address their demands.

    He noted that since 2019 when the Minimum Wage Bill was signed, no worker from the Aviation Ministry has benefitted from it.

    He said many of the aviation workers left service without benefitting from it, urging the Government to ensure that those who deserved the payment are paid.

    He also called for the approval and release of the reviewed conditions of service for aviation workers.

    He appealed to the government to address the issue of suppression of unionisation in the aviation industry.

    The meeting, which commenced by 6pm was ongoing as at the time of filing this report.