The Speaker of the Nigeria House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has again appealed to the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to heed the call to end the strike for students’ sake while engagements to address all the issues continue.
The Speaker appealed at the resumed meeting of the House’s leadership with the union.
Gbajabiamila appealed to both sides to give in and make concessions from their initial demands.
He said; “We will put together our recommendations and our thoughts and take it to Mr President, that’s why we are here to interface and look for solutions. Again let me repeat, we are running a government, nobody, no individual, no group, whether you are legislative, judiciary or whatever can be above the government, can be above the law. We can’t be against and I’m speaking specifically to ASUU, we did not say because the court has given judgment, that’s the end of our conversation. Despite the court judgment, we are still looking for solutions, we didn’t even address it here, I don’t want to address it. Otherwise, we could’ve said, if the government has given judgment, I don’t know if there’s a stay of execution, I don’t know.
“We are appealing to you, the Judiciary has spoken, the Executive has spoken, the Legislature is about to speak together with the Executive; everybody cannot be wrong and only one person is right. For me I’m happy with the solution on UTAS, no victor, no vanquished, everybody is being carried along. For the sake of emphasis, the House is pleading with you, let’s put all interest aside and look at the interest of our children. The white paper we told you, we’ll get, the letter is here, it’s now waiting for the President’s final approval.”
According to the Speaker, the leadership, in the next couple of days, will put up a report of its interactions with key stakeholders in the dispute and come up with recommendations that will enable the President to view the issues at stake from an informed second option.
Gbajabiamila assured the striking lecturers that the House leadership would invite the ASUU leadership following the outcome of the meeting with the President as soon as it is possible.
The said; “When we make our recommendations, we are going to meet Mr President and interface on your behalf.”
The Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Nwabueze cautioned that the nation would not be able to fund the use of multiple payment platforms.
“Acquiring and deploying any application will cost money continuously, to build infrastructure, you need a data centre, you need backups and constant software updating.
Also, the funds for the expected salty review of ASUU members will be captured in the 2023 budget,” he said.
The Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Acting Sylva Okolieaboh promised that if ASUU can sit with the office, and provide guidance on the areas of university peculiarities it wanted to be addressed, the Nigerian government would not hesitate to address the concerns.
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, and Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Folashade Yemi-Esan, who were in attendance also offered their readiness, with Ngige confirming that a letter for the approval of the salary rationalisation was demanded by ASUU is before the president.
Those in attendance included the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha; the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Sen Chris Ngige; Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Mr Sylva Okolieaboh; the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze; the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, represented and the Chairman, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta among others.
Also present was the delegation from ASUU led by its president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke.
During the interactions, the questions from the Speaker, the Attorney General of the Federation, Okolieaboh revealed that his office was ready to accommodate issues of concern to ASUU over salary payment if that would bring the crisis to an end.
While the Director General of the NITDA, also said the readiness of the agency to continue the integrity test on the payment platforms.
Following complaints of the Nigerian government’s attempt to strip the Universities Governing Council of its administrative power through the deployment of the IPPIS, the Head of Service, Yemi-Esan allayed the fears of the striking lecturers that the government would not take away the responsibilities of the Governing Council of Universities in the administration of the schools.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
