The Federal Government has claimed that finally, it has reached an agreement with the Academic Staff Union of the Nigerian Universities (ASUU) to end the nine-month industrial action today. The statement was released from the media office of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige yesterday.
The Minister has revealed that the Federal Government has delivered on its offer it made to ASUU.
Ngige was reacting to the claim by ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, that the Federal Government has failed to deliver on offers it made to the academicians.
Ogunyemi has made his stance clear that their members will only go back to the classroom when their salary arrears are fully paid.
However, the minister contrary to the ASUU claim revealed that they had an agreement to call off the strike on November 27 but failed to do so.
In his statement which partly reads; “The truth of the matter is that a ‘gentleman agreement’ was reached at the last meeting in which ASUU agreed to call off the strike before December 9, 2020.
“And the minister, in turn, agreed that once the strike is called off, he would get a presidential waiver for ASUU to be paid the remainder of their salaries on or before December 9,”
The Minister further explained that “the N40b Earned Academic Allowances have also been processed just as the N30bn revitalization funds, bringing it to N70bn. Likewise, the visitation panels for the universities have been approved by the President but the panel cannot perform its responsibilities until the shut universities are reopened.”
Meanwhile, he revealed that the lecturers were paid for February and March before an extension was made to the month of April, May, and June when already they were on strike, “on the compassionate ground”.
