FG Denies Meeting With SSANU/NASU Was Deadlocked

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and Nigerian universities’ non-academic workers’ unions on strike are further distancing themselves from allegations and counterclaims that it’s meeting held on Thursday to resolve the issues of the striking workers and bring the industrial action to end was stalled.

After several hours, the unions had left the Thursday meeting without giving journalists any interview but responded off-camera that the meeting failed to answer their demands.

But the Federal Government claimed in a statement by Labor Minister Chris Ngige on Friday night, signed by Deputy Director of Press in the Ministry, Charles Akpan, that the meeting held with the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities on Thursday did not end in a deadlock.

The Minister claimed that agreements were reached by all sides with deadlines, which were documented as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), contrary to media reports.

Ngige added that there were agreements on five topics discussed, although only one had a proposal, which was a government request for the unions to go back and speak to their bodies.

He said the MOU was issued to the leaders of the two unions to go and meet with their members no later than Monday, February 15, 2021, to call off the strike.

Meanwhile, the president of senior staff of Nigerian universities, Mohammed Ibrahim, insists that their plight has not been met, which includes, among others, delisting from integrated payroll and personnel information systematic IPPIS, a fair sharing formula of N40 billion earned allowance and payment of retired staff members’ benefits.

A meeting with SSANU and NASU bodies to suspend the ongoing strike was not mentioned by Mohammed, however.