By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Productivity Dr Chris Ngige has said that the Federal Government has paid up to N52.1 billion including the sum of N22.127 billion last week to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to off set some of the money owed them.
The Minister spoke to State House Correspondents on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, even as he called on ASUU to be patient with government while their demands are being looked into.
According to Ngige: “On the side of ASUU, you will also notice that there’s been some brewing crisis. ASUU and their direct employer, which is the Ministry of Education, there’s a tango and the tango is running round the MoA, the Memorandum of Action signed in 2020. Refreshing your minds, they were on strike last year and they were at home for nearly nine months and last December, the President magnanimously gave them a blanket clemency and we paid them their money for the nine months, spanning into January, February of this year.
“We gave them back nearly nine months’ pay. After doing that, we also gave them a revitalization fund for N40 billion, early this year, for the revitalization of the university system. In the MoA we agreed that they should get another revitalization this year and by last July, August, the money for revitalization was paid to them, for the university system that were entitled to that. N30 billion was paid. Last week, N22.127 billion was also released to the university system for the unions, workers university system to benefit in consonance with the MoA we signed in December 2020.
“The altercation going on now and for which ASUU is asking their union branches to vote on is that a lot of them don’t know that we have paid this quantum of money. Maybe it has not gotten into the accounts of the people, the persons involved, but I expected ASUU to inform their people, let them know that this is what has happened. They also have a grouse with the negotiation of 2009. The 2009 agreement was being renegotiated before Babalakin left and a new committee was set in place.
“That committee had advisors from Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labor and Employment, Minister of Budget and then Head of Service of the Federation and Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, because part of the renegotiation was the renegotiation of the conditions of service.
“So, a lot of the ministries and agencies that served on that committee as advisors did not agree with the content of the agreement they reached. Minister of Education and his ministry did not also agree with that recommendation.
“So as far as government is concerned, those recommendation are still at the level of what we call CBA, … bargaining agreement, at the level of the ministry. If the ministry agrees, the ministry will send it off to the Presidential Committee on Salaries, which is a high-level body for that, and we’ll look at it, and then advise them. It hasn’t come to the stage. Now that ASUU members and chambers are flexing muscles and saying that government has refused to sign.
“We’ve not gotten to the level of signing, we are doing an internal committee meeting with the Ministry of Education, so it’s important that people know what the correct situation is. When they finish at Education, they’ll bring it to us in Labour and we’ll forward it to the Finance Committee on Salaries, of which I’m a member and Co-Chair.
“So, it’s not that the government is reneging, it’s important we tell the public that this is the situation.
“Same goes for their UTAS, university transparency solution platform, they have developed. The government is desirous. Mr. President has signed many executive orders; Executive Order 5, Executive Oder 3, on local content, anything that will save us foreign exchange, we are for it. We have a government agency that is regulating everything that is digital communication platform, so that government agency is NITDA.
“So, they (NITDA) have subjected that solution to that center for interrogation. The centre as an banners as our advice in the Constitution meeting. A committee on education Astron accountant General’s office, initially massive commission that will house the headway of that platform when developed.
“NITDA has written just last week to give their results on the tests they have done, that those two broad categories of tests, (user acceptance test, which involves NUC and the universities vice chancellors, bursars, and registrars) that has been done. The second group of tests is what they call integrity test; they have to look at the integrity and usability of that system, where are the loopholes?
“The third one is the vulnerability test, many systems are hacked into, what potential is there as presently developed, and how they can offer their advice for the protection. So, these are the issues there and they have written officially and I’ve copied ASUU with the result of the test, that for now, the system in this present state, cannot be given NITDA compliance certificate, but they went on to enumerate things that can be done to make it a system that will be robust.
“So, they have conducted a lot, like I said about 500 tests and out of that 500 tests, the solution system of UTAS pass many, but there are other areas that need to be recovered. About 1/3 of the tests that need to be covered because they were not satisfactory.
“So, this is the situation with ASUU, vis-à-vis the government, it’s work in progress and I will appeal with them to exercise patience with the government as we go along this, we want to do things that are logically situated”.
