The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige has assured that the strike threatened by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will not happen.
On Tuesday, Ngige said this on Channels Television in response to ASUU’s three-week deadline for the federal government to follow the prior accord agreed with the union.
Emmanuel Osodeke, the union’s national president, indicated that the industrial action was necessitated by the federal government’s inability to follow the memorandum of action (MoA) it agreed with the union in exchange for the suspension of the previous strike action.
Ngige, on the other hand, believed that funding were available for institutions.
“The strike will not happen. For one, I know that the funds to pay are there and the ministry of education has assured me that by tomorrow, they will emanate letters to make sure that the disbursement reaches the accounts of the various universities.
“We are not paying the unions directly, so it will get to the universities’ accounts,” Ngige said.