The federal government negotiating team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, will today, Thursday, October 15, meet with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in a bid to end the over six months strike by university lecturers.
A statement by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations at the ministry, Mr Charles Akpan reads: “Ngige will be hosting a meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday, October 15, 2020”.
ASUU had embarked on an indefinite industrial action following their opposition to the federal government’s move to enforce the use of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) for salary payment.
However, indications that the strike action may soon be resolved emerged on Tuesday when ASUU was summoned to a meeting by the Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan along with Ngige.
The meeting, chaired by Lawan, also had in attendance, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, the Accountant -General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris and the ASUU leadership led by the President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi.
Addressing journalists after about the three-hour closed session, Ngige said, “ASUU has demonstrated to us, how the UTAS they developed could work but the demonstration will continue.
“We will involve other government agencies who would also come and assess it. Discussions on it are not foreclosed yet.
“UTAS is a homegrown software. It is what we call local content that Mr President is encouraging. It will be considered by the government,” Ngige added.
