The Minister of Labour and Employment Dr Chris Ngige said Friday that the implementation of the Memorandum of Action signed between the federal government with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is on course and progressing without hitches.
The minister said this at the end of a meeting between the government side and ASUU to review the progress made in the implementation of the Memorandum of Action signed by the parties in December 2020.
He said the meeting discussed every item on the 2020 Memorandum of Action between government and ASUU and the progress made so far, and reached agreements.
On the issue of the Revitaliasation Fund, the minister said they considered how to streamline the outstanding payment into the national budget or into a special system fund.
With regards to Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), Ngige recalled that the government paid N40 billion to all the unions while the National Universities Commission (NUC) provided a formula, which was used for sharing it to all the university workers.
“We had pockets of protest (regarding that) and we managed it. Today, we also agreed to find a way to accommodate the balance in order to pay all as and when due.
“We also looked at salaries that were not captured by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), resulting in some lecturers not having their full amount of payment since December or January 2020. We felt that such a thing should not arise. Notes were exchanged by the office of Accountant General and ASUU leadership. So, we want them to go back and cross check.”
Ngige said they also discussed the issue of check off dues and again, both OAGF and ASUU were asked to go back and look at their records and reconcile because the Accountant General’s office said it had finished payment and tendered documents in that respect.
He said the issue of state universities and the NUC bill were equally addressed and they agreed that both parties should look at the draft bill and the final bill knocked out for transmission to the National Assembly.
“We also looked at the issue of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) and also made certain recommendations which will be communicated to the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, who heads the supervising ministry, to enable them fast forward the various tests that are needed on the UTAS system like stress test, integrity test and the rest of them.
“So, it has been a very fruitful meeting and we have reached agreements on most of the issues and we can say that we made a very big progress on the relationship between the government and ASUU. In the light of that, we have agreed to reconvene before the end of May, to know where we have reached on the various assignments we gave given to ourselves.”
In the same vein, President of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said, “Put together, we want to agree that we had fruitful deliberations, and we have strong hopes that there would be a peaceful and harmonious relationship in achieving the provisions of the MOA of 2020.”
He commended the Federal Government for agreeing with the Union on a periodic review of the implementation of the Memorandum of Action (MOA) signed by both parties.
“We want to agree that it is a departure from the past, because now we have agreed on intermittent or periodic review of the MOA so that areas that could create tension would be apprehended before matters degenerate,” Ogunyemi said.
