The Federal Government on Wednesday assured that the ongoing strike action by the university’s industrial unions would soon end.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC), who spoke with the State House Correspondents, said the FG is commited to resolving issues raised by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).
Ngige, however, denied that the FG was planning to create a different payment table for the unions, said the government had summoned relevant agencies, including the National Information Development Agency (NITDA), to brief them on what the government has achieved in resolving issues that led to the ongoing strike by the unions.
Ngige said: “The government is interested in the students going back to school. The meeting of last Thursday is expected to look at the progress report by the relevant bodies handling the crisis in the tertiary institutions.
“The government intimated the bodies, including NITDA with how far it has gone with the integrity test on the University Transparency and Accountability System (UTAS) which was proposed as an alternative platform by the ASUU and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System (U3PS). This is proposed by SSANU and NASU.
“We are soon waiting for the report of the Tripartite Plus Committee comprising the Federal Ministry of Education, the Chief of Staff, Salaries and Wages Income Commission, the National University Commission (NUC) as well as the striking unions.”