The federal government has reacted to threats by the Academic Staff Union of Universities to embark on nationwide strike.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Wednesday, stated that the Federal Government would look into the concerns raised by ASUU.

The minister likewise said most of the union’s complaints were domiciled in the ministries of Education and Communications and Digital Economy.

Ngige specified this in an interview with The PUNCH in Abuja.

ASUU had provided numerous risks of an indefinite strike over what the union tagged the failure of the Federal Government to honour a few of the arrangements it signed with it in the past.

In 2020, ASUU went on a nine-month strike, which was cancelled in December of that year.

In 2021, the union issued fresh hazards and gave the Federal Government a three-week demand to resolve its complaints. The union later on shelved the relocation following the payment of N22.1 bn earned allowances and the release of N30bn revitalisation fund to the universities.

Some members of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council, led by the co-chairmen, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Abubakar III, and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Dr Samson Ayokunle, visited the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over the failure to carry out the Memorandum of Understanding the federal government signed with ASUU in 2009 and other contracts.

At the meeting, Buhari stated the government stayed committed to fulfilling the guarantees made to the union.

Regardless of this, ASUU released directives to its chapters and motivated members to continue mobilising for the impending strike.

Ngige, however, informed Punch, “The reality is that ASUU’s complaints are with the NUC, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. The concerns are the release of their UTAS and the White Paper report on the universities.

“You know that we at the Ministry of Labour are not their employer; the Education ministry is their company. Our task here is to serve as reconciliatory officers.

“The President has mandated his Chief of Staff and the Minister of Education along with the Ministry of Labour to step in, but my task is to step in as the reconciliatory officer if both sides decline to settle their grievances. We will undoubtedly look into the matter.”

ToriNG