The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Monday advised members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to take the offer the federal government proposed as conditions to end the 8-month-old ongoing strike.
Ngige, who described the offer as the best while featuring on Arise TV morning show, also urged the striking university teachers to hasten consultations with its members in order to return to the negotiation table before Friday.
According to him, the nation will appreciate them if they accept the offer, call off the strike and return to their respective classrooms.
“I feel that even this offer is one of the best they have ever gotten since I started conciliation with them. I do not see why they should not accept it. Everything they asked for has been granted. I don’t think they should say the offer is not good,” the minister said.
“But I told them before they left that asking the nation and the students to wait from Friday to Friday is unfair, they should come back to us by Tuesday. They have done that before when we negotiated with the Senate President. The offer was made on a Thursday and they came back to us on a Tuesday.
“So, that’s what I expect them to do this time around. If they do so, the nation will appreciate them and regard them as patriotic citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I expect them to get back to me much earlier than Friday,”
Daily Trust had reported that the federal government last week bowed to pressure as it excluded ASUU from IPPIS and agreed to pay them their outstanding salaries from February to June using the old salary payment Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) platform.
Though, the government had said the exemption of ASUU members is a temporary measure pending the conclusion of the integrity test on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
