L-R: Minster of Education, Adamu Adamu, Minister of Labour and Employment , Dr Chris Ngige and ASUU team led bt its president, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, Right.
By Ayo Kehinde
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige has said the onus for the resolution of the face -off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, rest with the lecturers’ union, which he said has refused to embrace the ‘compassionate’ disposition of President Buhari to their welfare.
Speaking during the Workers’ Day celebration, the Minister said the government had offered to pay the workers their February and March salaries individually through their bank accounts rather than, “giving bulk money to the universities for them to share.”
When pressed further for clarification during an appearance at the News Hour programme of AIT at 8pm on Friday, he said the government only asked the lecturers to fill a form with their Bank Verification Numbers, BVN, for easy payment of their salary into their individual accounts, but they refused.
He said the government took the measure because they were not sure of the staff strength of lectures.
“Some have retired last month, some will be retiring this month, so how do we continue to pay..,” he said, rhetorically.
ASUU and the FG are still locked in a stalemated discussion following the insistence by the government that the lecturers must enrol in the universal payment system for its civil servant, a move the lecturers explain would constrain the smooth running of education peculiar to the university system. They saw through the BVN directive as a backdoor policy by government to achieve its objective and rejected it.
