The federal government on Wednesday appealed to
primary and secondary school teachers not to embark on strike in solidarity
with striking university lecturers.
The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom
Wike, on Wednesday also disclosed that 80 per cent of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)’s demands had been met by Federal
Government.
Mr. Wike, who stated these in a meeting with the
leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in Abuja, said the yet-to-be
resolved issues were those of earned allowances.
He said that the other unresolved issue was the N400
billion annual capital expenditure to universities demanded by ASUU.
“The N400 billion they are demanding is not part of
federal budget or Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention.
“And out of the N92 billion earned allowances demanded by
ASUU, government has offered N30 billion to them for a start,’’ he said.
According to the minister, ASUU is considering the offer
and had asked to be given until Thursday to enable it meet with its
branches for a resolution.
“So, the purpose of this meeting is to tell you (NUT) how
far we have gone because of the reports and the letter we got from the union
that you are going on a solidarity strike with ASUU,’’ he said.
Mr. Wike also apologised to the NUT for his
comments on Monday that the union had no business going on a
solidarity strike with ASUU strike, saying he spoke “unofficially’’.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Minister of Labour,
Emeka Wogu, appealed to the NUT not to go on the proposed strike as it would
only complicate issues.
Mr. Wogu said that NUT might not have been briefed
appropriately on government’s efforts to resolve the crisis with ASUU and so
appealed to the union to embark on the planned sympathy strike.
“One thing that is clear is that the Federal Government
has started the implementation of the 2009 agreement. The matter can still be
resolved,’’ he said.
In his response, the National President of NUT, Michael
Olukoya, said teachers, under the umbrella of NUT were concerned with the
lingering ASUU strike that was threatening the collapse of the education
sector.
Mr. Olukoya said that all stakeholders should come
together and explore ways of ending the crisis.
He advised both ASUU and the Federal Government to “put
Nigeria first’’ in their negotiations and shun the idea of “buck passing’’.
The NUT boss also called for the review of the conditions
for accessing the intervention fund as the stringent conditions was preventing
the institutions from benefiting from the fund.
He said that NUT was not threatening to go on the
solidarity strike in the interest of ASUU, but in the overall interest of
Nigerians.
(NAN)
Source: Premium Times
No comments:
Post a Comment