FG Says ASUU Strike Illegal, Withdrawal Of Service Corruption

The Federal Government has declared the current two-week warning strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities illegal.

ASUU declared a warning strike on Monday, on grounds that the government had yet to address issues raised in agreements it reached with the union from 2009 to 2019, including poor funding of the university system.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, gave the government’s position in Abuja after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday.

It accused ASUU of not following laid down procedures before embarking on the industrial action.

He said ASUU did not give the government the “mandatory notice” required before a union could proceed on strike.

Ngige noted that having failed to follow the laid down procedures, it amounted to corruption for the university teachers to go on strike.

The minister said, “I am in shock. The strike is illegal because they did not give us the mandatory notice.

“If you withdraw services and you still want to be paid, it is corruption. Is that not corruption?”

Ngige, however, added that he had contacted the leadership of ASUU and invited it to a meeting on Thursday (today) to discuss the issues raised by the union.

But he warned that the government would not succumb to threats by ASUU, arguing that “no employee should dictate to an employer.”

An immediate issue is the union’s opposition to the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System of the government, which is designed to capture all Federal Government workers under one payment system.

The government’s target is to eliminate ‘ghost workers.’

But, ASUU has consistently kicked against it on the grounds that it would not suit the university system.

In place of the IPPIS, the union proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, which it said would address the peculiar case of the universities.

In place of the IPPIS, the union proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, which it said would address the peculiar case of the universities.

When asked for the government’s final stance on the IPPIS, Ngige replied that after the union visited the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), earlier in the year, the government stood its ground on the IPPIS.