The House of Representatives on Thursday appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its ongoing strike for the sake of Nigerian students, while negotiations with the Federal Government on the labour dispute continues.
The leadership of the House led by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, made the appeal during a meeting with the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and the leadership of ASUU led by Biodun Ogunyemi.
Gbajabiamila called on ASUU to consider the psychological, social and other effects the strike will have on students, and return back to class for teaching, learning and research.
He urged ASUU to follow the directives by government and join the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, (IPPIS) which is intended to rid the public service of corruption.
The Speaker expressed hope in the ability of the legislature ending the ASUU/FG face off as it had done in the case of Resident Doctors and the Electricity Workers.
“We have tried to avert strikes and we have been successful at it: Medical strike and electric strike. It does not speak well of the country. It has become almost perennial that at every point, somebody is holding somebody somewhere.
“There are basically two main issues here. Agreement and IPPIS. The law says you should give 15 days notice. The law is not there to be broken. The notice is to delay the inevitable. It does not in any way affect the strike.”
“On the other issue, agreements are not meant to be disobeyed. There has to be something called the sanctity of agreements. There are situations where agreements are no longer feasible through no fault of govt. That breach is excusable. We are calling the meeting so that the National Assembly can be a part of this agreement.
“ASUU, on the issue of IPPIS, I have heard and read you. Much as you may be right that ASUU should not be part of IPPIS, we don’t live in a jungle. If the government has come out with a policy and for the good reason, you should obey. The government is saying register for this and an organization is saying, we don’t want to do this. There has to be an equal application of the law.
” I totally disagree with the government on the issue of agreements and violation of agreements. If you were insufficient contact with the House Committee, they could have made a case, to say no, we have to make a budget.
“We cannot go on like this. I know the government is ready and willing to listen to you and I want you to be able to listen to the government as well. There is a meeting today, The Chairman of the Education Committee should be there. Whatever agreement that is reached will be known to the whole world,” he added.
Responding, ASUU President, Ogunyemi told the House that union cannot call off the strike without consulting with the membership of ASUU in all branches nationwide and promised to make the outcome of the consultations known to the parliament next week.
He also informed the House that it was not possible for ASUU to join IPPIS as it would impede scholastic researches and images of the Nigerian Universities both at home and abroad.
“We are not starting a fresh strike. On 7 Feb 2019, we signed a memorandum of action. Every item has a role assigned and timeline attached. We found that for much of last year, nothing concrete was done about the memorandum of action.
“We don’t allow the Minister of Finance to impose IPPIS on us. It is a matter of what is reasonable. Let them tell us the global best practice that informs that. It will shut the door against scholars and researchers that we need. We have told them, it is not about us. We have no reason to cover up corruption.
“The IPPIS will localize our universities. It will bring us further into the abyss of low ranking. We have come up with a proposal on university transparency. We have written to the ministry to tell them on how we can resolve this strike”, the ASUU President said.
Addressing the meeting, the Minister of State, Labour and Productivity, Keyamo said the federal government was not aware of the strike by the lecturers, arguing that: “according to labour laws, ASUU should us give a 15-day notice of any strike. No agency of government received any notice. It is an illegal strike because it has not complied with the law.
“We are extremely happy about this invitation by House. The issue is about the teeming youths at home following the strike. We in the Ministry of Labour up till this moment, we have not received any notice of any strike from ASUU.
“A meeting is fixed for 2 pm today for further deliberations. On IPPIS system. If we want to go to the nitty-gritty of this issue, it may take a whole day here.
We all know that the system is designed to fight ghost workers, corruption and all that”, Keyamo noted.
The House of Representatives had summoned the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Minister of Education and President of ASUU over the ongoing industrial action by the University Lecturers.
The meeting was to discuss issues relating to the recurring strikes in Nigerian universities and find solutions that will end the ongoing labour dispute in the nation’s ivory towers.
The House took the decision at a recent plenary when it unanimously adopted a motion of urgent public importance on the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) Strike’, moved by Dachung Bagos (PDP, Plateau).
