The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has urged the Federal Government to hasten up the process of renegotiation to enable all outstanding issues sorted out amicably.
NAAT President, Ibeji Nwokoma, made the appeal in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.
The statement was entitled ”Blame the snail speed of negotiation by the government for the lingering strike action”.
Nwokoma said: “We wish to put it on record and also put the records straight that the Federal Government should be blamed for the lingering strike action by the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
”The truth is that we are tired of signing Memorandum of Action or Understanding with timelines with the government for which they have over time failed woefully to abide by.”
He added that the leadership of the union sympathizes with the students of which their children are part.
On their part, the NAAT president, therefore, renewed the union’s commitment to go back to work.
“We wish to plead with well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the government to as a matter of urgency bring the negotiations to a logical conclusion as soon as possible.”
He further said that it was important to re-state that the union had a conciliatory meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment on May 6.
He also noted that the attended the tripartite plus meeting chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, at the villa on May 12.
He added that unfortunately none of these meetings yielded the desired results.
”The meetings of March 21 and April 21 with the Renegotiation Committee is by all ramifications slow as no financial commitment has been made by the government to our union apart from the recent meetings by a sister union with government.
”NAAT, therefore, pleads with the government to hasten up the process of the renegotiation to enable all outstanding issues to be sorted out amicably,” he said.