Nigeria’s minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, has declared the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as illegal, saying by law, the union was supposed to issue the government at least a 14-day notice.
The minister’s new position might not be unconnected with the government’s failure to persuade the striking workers to end the industrial action at a reconciliatory meeting which was held at Mr Ngige’s conference room on Tuesday.
But the union has said there is nothing illegal about its action, noting it did not embark on any new strike but only resumed an action it suspended in 2020.
The president of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, according to Premium Times, said that the nine-month prolonged strike that was suspended in 2020 was only suspended “conditionally.”
“And the condition was that the government would implement the agreements we both signed, but that if they did not, we would resume the action without informing anybody,” Mr Osodeke said.
In a statement issued on Wednesday morning and signed by the deputy director of press at the labour and employment ministry, Charles Akpan, Ngige insisted that ASUU’s demands are already being met by the government.
But ASUU disagrees.
“The condition was that the government would implement the agreements we both signed, but that if they did not, we would resume the action without informing anybody,” ASUU’s Osodeke said.
“Well, the decision to declare the strike illegal is his (the minister’s) choice. It doesn’t bother us. If he wants to shut down the universities permanently, it is his business. If he wants to sack all the lecturers in the universities, it’s his business; so it’s his choice.
While both parties are billed to meet on Monday to continue negotiation, Mr Osodeke said nothing was agreed upon at the end of the meeting. He said the government only made promises “as usual”.
Meanwhile, the minister, at the end of the Tuesday meeting, said its next meeting would have been on Thursday but for ASUU which said it would be visiting a member who was bereaved.
“Well, we wanted to reconvene on Thursday but they said that one of their trustees, Prof. Assisi Asobie was bereaved. He lost his wife, so they said they were going there Thursday and Friday. I am hopeful that we can reconvene next Monday,” he said in a statement.
