ASUU Strike: Ngige Begs University Lecturers To Have Mercy On Students

Labour & Employment Minister Chris Ngige has pleaded with striking
varsity teachers to show mercy on students by calling off their strike.

The
teachers, under auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU), began a nationwide strike since November, last year, over some
disagreement between the union and the Federal Government.

Ngige
also declared that Federal Government would pay a minimum wage, adding
that things were being worked out by the Committee saddled with that
responsibility.

Ngige spoke yesterday in Awka, Anambra State
capital, in a chat with reporters at the premises of a local radio
station, belonging to the state.

The Federal Government and
Labour representatives adjourned their meeting till today after a
five-hour deliberation last Friday. At the end of the meeting, the
minister said substantial progress was made and that all that is left is
a final resolution. Ngige said the problems of ASUU were not caused by
President Muhammadu Buhari, but were bequeathed to the present
administration by the previous governments based on agreements reached
in 2009.

He said: “FG will comfortably pay minimum wage, we want
to pay it, but there must be balancing because figures were bandied and
we are asking Labour to exercise patience.

“I appeal to ASUU and
Labour to have mercy on students and be patient. As far as I’m
concerned, we have treated Labour well. And they should also know I’m a
comrade and that is why I always intervened on matters that concern
them.”

Ngige, who narrated how he became Anambra governor in
2003, said some of the things being faced in governance today were same
problems that he confronted, yet, he paid salaries and piled pensions
without borrowing.

The minister said he was made governor under
compulsion, and such made him to stand his ground when the hurricane
invaded Anambra State then, adding that the rest was now history.

Ngige
said: “What Buhari is doing now is what I did in office as governor in
Anambra, which was mainly my offence that brought the problems. So,
Buhari is not the architect of salary issue in Nigeria.”