ASUU strike: Ngige begs varsity teacher 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.”