The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has ruled out the possibility of suspending its six months old strike.
The university teachers disclosed this on Tuesday during a meeting at the University of Abuja campus.
They accused the Ministry of Labour and Employment, chaired by Dr. Chris Ngige as “Conciliator” for continuously creating more chaos in the resolution process.
President Muhammadu Buhari had Tuesday reportedly directed the Minister of Education Adamu Adamu to end the strike in two weeks.
ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke,who chaired the teachers’ Tuesday’s meeting,said the union will never suspend Strike but ensure it put a permanent end to it.
He said:”ASUU therefore makes bold to say that the Minister of Labour and Employment has taken upon himself the role of unabashed protagonist in our ongoing dispute with the government of Nigeria for some inexplicable reasons. Dr Ngige earlier told whoever cared to listen that he was not the employer of university academics and advised the union to march to the Ministry of Education. Nigerians may wish to know why he has suddenly turned around to constitute himself into impediment to an amicable resolution of the ongoing crisis.”
The union said it remains focused on its goal of making the Nigerian University system internationally competitive and getting its products to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their peers in any part of the world.
“We appreciate the teeming Nigerians for identifying with our vision in this respect. We specifically acknowledge the support and sacrifices of our students (including our members who are running their postgraduate programmes) as well as their parents; they are our critical partners in this transformation project. We in ASUU shall do our utmost best not to let you down.
“ASUU appreciates your concerns and sympathetic support. We are as bothered as you are because we share a common interest in the Nigeria project. However, ASUU shall continue to be guided by the sacred canons of integrity, objectivity, and responsibility to which both academics and media practitioners subscribe.
“It is our fervent hope and desire that the current groundswell of interests would culminate in a convergence of solutions to this avoidable crisis in the overall interest of Nigeria Together, we shall win. The struggle continues,” he said.
Osodeke said if Ngige means well as a “conciliator, he won’t be putting roadblocks on the path to completing a process that has dragged for more than five years.
“The Ministry of Labour and Employment, as the chief labour ministry of the country, is principally expected to apprehend disputes between employers and employees with a view to settling such disputes.