By Ben Adoga, Abuja
The Ministry of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has faulted the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS on the ongoing ASUU warning strike.

The NANS leadership in a press statement blamed the ongoing four weeks strike by ASUU on the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige .

A statement by the Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations in the Ministry, Charles Akpan, said the statement which threatened to mobilise students to disrupt activities of the Ministry is inflammatory and misguided.

The statement noted that they would not join issues with students who certainly do not have enough information about the commitment of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige to the return of stability and excellence to the universities.

He noted: “First is to note that university lecturers who operate under a union of workers, the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) affiliated to the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) are employees of the universities being overseen on behalf of the Federal Government by the National Universities Commission, a parastatal under the Ministry of Education. The Federal Ministry of Education being in charge of everything Education is hence the employer of all workers in the education sector including the academic and non-academic staff of federal universities. The Ministry of Labour for clarity, is the conciliator of disputes between workers and their employers in various Ministries, in this case, ASUU and the Ministry of Education.

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“ It is thus completely false that the Minister of Labour and Employment hasn’t paid attention to monitoring the implementation of the December 2020 ASUU/ FG Memorandum of Action.
“Apart for the Federal Ministry of Education, other ministries, departments and agencies involved in the agreement include the National Universities Commission, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget & National Planning, Budget office of the Federation, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA. Though not assigned to it in the MOA, the Minister of Labour and Employment has been monitoring the implementation of the MOA to ensure compliance.”

“The N40B Earned Allowances were paid in February/March 2021. The N30B Revitalization that suffered delay was paid in October/ with another N22.72B mainstreamed into the 2021 Budget also paid November 2021. So in all, a total of N92.72B was paid as per the December 2020 Agreement apart from the withheld salaries running into hundreds of Billions for a period, not at work, that is, No Work no pay as contained in Section 43 of trade Dispute Act.”