Speaking in his office in Abuja during the presentation of certificates of registration to the Congress of University Academics and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics, Ngige noted that both unions have been officially gazetted and are therefore entitled to all labour rights as enshrined in the International Trade Unions’ constitution.

He said, “Before 2020, CONUA had approached the ministry complaining of a lack of democracy and transparency in the leadership of ASUU, especially in rendering a proper account of their check-up dues remitted from the government.

“Based on these grievances, the ministry decided to register the members of CONUA to operate as a full-fledged union, for which we have issued a certificate of registration and gazetting, which is part of Section 3:2 of the ITU.

Unbundling is not new; the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NEPA, and NNPC have been unbundled.”

Also, CONUA President, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, alleged that the highhandedness of ASUU’s leadership gave birth to the association, stressing that the era of incessant strikes in the university system was over.

He, however, protested the continued remittance of the association members’ check-up dues to ASUU, asking the minister to intervene to reverse the trend.

The National President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, did not immediately respond to inquiries by our correspondent as calls and messages sent to him remained unanswered as of the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, branches of ASUU are set to hold emergency congresses starting from Wednesday (today)

Highly placed sources who are executives of the union made this known to our correspondent in Abuja.

The congress will be discussing the government’s recent move to pay withheld salaries of CONUA members.

Branches are expected to take decisions that will be transmitted to the national leadership of the union.

One of the sources who spoke to our correspondent said, “Branches are expected to hold congress. Ours is tomorrow. We have refused to say anything to the press because this is a war we want to be tactical about.”

Another source at the Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka said, “Yes, it is true. We will be holding our congress in line with the directive of the national body.”

This was revealed in an invitation sent to reporters on Tuesday by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Oshundun Olajide.

The invitation stated that Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, will do the presentation at the Hon. Minister Conference Room, Federal Secretariat, Phase 1, Abuja by 2 pm.

CONUA, a separate body of academic unions with a presence in a few federal universities, is led by its National Coordinator, ‘Niyi Sunmonu, a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.

The message by the Ministry of Labour read, “The Honorable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige cordially invites you to the recognition and presentation of Certificate of Registration to the Congress of Nigerian University Academics

The message by the Ministry of Labour read, “The Honorable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige cordially invites you to the recognition and presentation of Certificate of Registration to the Congress of Nigerian University Academics”

It added, “Your media organisation is invited to cover the event and strictly by invitation.”

ASUU has been on strike since February 14 to press home its demands.

Despite a ruling by the National Industrial Court on Sept 21, 2022 ordering the university to return to work, the University lecturers have remained adamant.

Last week, ASUU, through its lawyers, filed an appeal against the court ruling.

The former governor of Anambra State announced his withdrawal from the contest in a statement on Friday in Abuja.

Ngige’s announcement followed a valedictory session held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in the nation’s capital, in honour of ministers seeking elective offices in the 2023 general elections.

Ngige’s withdrawal from the APC presidential primary slated for end of May and the 2023 elections next year followed a directive by the President Muhammadu Buhari that all ministers and appointees with political ambitions quit their offices in government.

The minister’s letter was titled, ‘Withdrawal of my presidential ambition’.

It read, “On Tuesday, 19th April 2022, publicly declared my interest to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, following the constitutional provision that precludes our amiable incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari from seeking re-election to the office, as he would have completed his two terms in office by 29th May 2023. The declaration was made in my home town, Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.

“My declaration was sequel to pressure on me from my constituents, political associates, friends and other well-

meaning Nigerians, who felt I possess the necessary qualifications and experience for the job. Some of these supporters even taxed themselves to procure the Expression of Interest/ Nomination Forms of our Party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for me. The forms however are yet to be filled and submitted.

“Today, 13th May, 2022, I had an audience with the President, Muhammadu Buhari as a follow up to the one I earlier had with him on 11th May, 2022.

“Having also consulted widely with my family, constituents, supporters and well-wishers, it is my pleasure to announce the withdrawal of my interest and earlier decision to contest the office of the President in the 2023 general elections.

“As a result of this, will NOT be participating in any of the internal party processes of the said election, starting with the primary. took this momentous decision firstly in the overall interest of the nation, in order to enable me concentrate on my job, and assist the President and the Government, whether the difficult last lap, in the life of the administration and secondly for other family reasons.

“I have since communicated this decision to the President and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

“My constituents, political associates and well-wishers across the country are by this statement informed of this latest decision, which also has the blessing and support of the overwhelming majority, hence supersedes any other interest, personal or otherwise.”

The meeting is expected to start by 5 p.m today.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, is expected to chair the meeting with other representatives of the Federal Government and ASUU members in attendance.

The Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Patience Onuobia, disclosed this in a notice of meeting sent to journalists on Monday.

“The Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, will be meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities today by 5 pm,” the notice read.

Recall that ASUU had on Monday, February 14, 2022, announced a four week total and comprehensive warning strike following the inability of the union and the Federal Government to reach common ground on the demands of university lecturers.

Some of ASUU’s demands include the release of revitalization funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the UTAS payment platform for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers.

This is as the four week warning total and comprehensive strike embarked upon by the union enters its third week on Monday.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan, made this known to our correspondent in Abuja on Saturday.

ASUU and the Federal Government had begun series of negotiations aimed towards the suspension of the recently declared total and rolling four-week strike declared by the union.

ASUU during its extra-ordinary National Executive Council meeting held at the University of Lagos on February 14, 2022 had declared a four-week comprehensive strike over what it claimed was the failure of the government to meet its demands.

The president of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, had insisted that the union would transform the strike to an indefinite strike if the government failed to honour its demands among which it listed as the release of earned allowances, release of revitalisation funds for universities, increase in salary scale of lecturers, deployment of the UTAS payment platform for university workers among others.

This is coming as the National Association of Nigerian Students directed its members to block major federal roads in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory on February 28, 2022 in protest against the ongoing strike.

The spokesman of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan, confirmed the proposed meeting to our correspondent on Monday.

“The minister will meet with the ASUU on Tuesday by 1pm. It will be at the ministry’s office,” Akpan said.

ASUU declared a four-week nationwide strike on February 14, 2022, when the Federal Government failed to grant its demands.

Some of the union’s demands which had yet to be met are funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution; promotion arrears, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, and the inconsistencies in Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System Payment.

While stating his expectations for the meeting, ASUU chairman, University of Lagos chapter, Dr Dele Ashiru, urged the government to commence the implementation of the 2009 ASUU-FG agreement.

He said, “They should just sign our renegotiated 2009 agreement and commence implementation that will usher in a new salary structure for our members.We are not averted to renegotiation, what we don’t want is the way they kept our document without attending to it. If they have any observation on the document, they should let us know and then we can negotiate. It is the government that runs away from negotiation, our union does not.”

The union’s Lagos Zone Coordinator, Dr Adelaja Odukoya, also said, “Our members are not ready for any Memorandum of Understanding or action because the government has shown absolute insincerity and contempt for our members and they are not ready to develop the Nigerian universities.”

Meanwhile, NANS has ordered the blockage of all major roads in all states across the federation and the Abuja.

The students’ body made this known in a statement on Monday jointly signed by its President, Asefon Sunday; and Secretary-General, Adekitan Lukman, titled ‘NANS National Action Against Incessant ASUU Strike.’

The statement read, “I am pleased to direct the immediate commencement of planning and mass mobilisation of Nigerian students and comrades across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT in line with congress decision. The line of actions is as follows: blockage of all major federal roads in all the 36 states of the federation to be led and coordinated by NANS JCC and zonal executive including national officials of NANS in the state.The Federal Capital Territory is to be blocked by the national secretariat in collaboration with FCT axis of NANS.These became sacrosanct once ASUU and FG fail to reach compromise and get our campuses reopened on or before February 28, 2022.In a clear term, Monday, February 28, 2022 is hereby declared as national action day against ASUU incessant strike action.”

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, stated this during a meeting of the presidential committee on salaries with the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to him, the Federal Government pays the salaries of doctors and health workers at the exact time.

The minister said the explanation became necessary to address the members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

NARD members are currently on strike over alleged salary irregularities.

However, Ngige said: “NARD goes about telling Nigerians that the government is owing them salaries, and as well not taking the problems in the health sector seriously. But this is not true. It is incorrect.

“No doctor, nurse, pharmacist or any other health worker, including the driver, is owed a monthly salary. Government pays as and when due.

“The truth is that NARD fails to tell Nigerians that their colleagues who are owed salaries are the ones illegally recruited. Therefore, they were neither captured by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, nor were their payments provided for by the  Budget Office of the Federation.

“Monthly salaries are done as and when due for those legitimately employed by the federal government, but not to those illegally employed or need their appointments regularised and captured in the finances of government for payment.”

Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, disclosed this on Thursday, at the end of a meeting between the FG and the Joint Action Committee of the two unions, convened to examine the level of implementation of the Memorandum of Action it signed with the unions in February, 2021.

Ngige commended the unions for their understanding and maturity in cooperating with the government to resolve the issues, emphasising that the government did not take them for granted.

This was contained in a statement on Friday by the ministry of labour and employment spokesman, Mr Charles Akpan, titled, ‘SSANU/NASU: FG to clear arrears of minimum wage by October end.’

The minister disclosed that the meeting was a continuation of an earlier one held on February 25, 2021 at his instance, and at which agreements were reached on various issues concerning members of the unions.

He stated that the meeting agreed that the payment of the arrears be fast-tracked between now and the end of October, adding that arrears of salary and promotion had been captured in the 2021 Supplementary Budget.

Ngige stated that it was not government’s intention to owe but that the delay was caused by the difficulty in getting the actual number of people qualified for the arrears, “as a lot of people had joined the service from 2020 while the period of the arrears spanned 19th April – 31st December, 2019.’’

On the Earned Allowances for universities, polytechnics, colleges of education staff, Ngige said the JAC would update the National Universities Commission on the outstanding amount owed its members, while the NUC was given two weeks to carry out the appropriate reconciliation.

The statement read, “The meeting agreed to correct the anomalies in the payment of hazard allowance caused by an error in printing, which had seen all members collecting the same sum of money across board, with no distinction between senior and junior.

“Regarding the Responsibility Allowance, where Heads of Unit were omitted, Ngige disclosed that their employers had been given two weeks to rectify the anomalies to enable the affected people to get the appropriate allowance due to them.”

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said this while addressing newsmen before a closed-door meeting with NMA and other relevant stakeholders on Saturday in Abuja.

It would be recalled that the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) had embarked on an indefinite strike on Aug. 1 to press home its demands.

Ngigi said an agreement was reached on the Residency Training Fund outstanding for 2020 and 2021 after the Budget Office had explained that N617,429,121 was outstanding to be paid in 2020.

He said “Some people who are not supposed to benefit from the fund got money and because of that the number of genuine people that were not paid also came to that quantum of persons. So, reconciliation is being done and some monies are being returned. We have given a timeline for this reconciliation to be done and for 2021, the money approved by the government is N4.802 billion. This money, as I said earlier, was contained in the 2021 Supplementary Budget, which the President signed on the eve of his departure to the UK for the meeting and medical check-up. So, between that time and now, it became a money law. The funds have now been sourced and it has gotten from the CBN to the Budget Office where we expect it to be processed in one week as undertaken by the Government side. The meeting agreed that we need to let this matter. Therefore, the Budget Office of the Federation should start from the 2021 service vote to start paying. And if we have any leftovers, we roll it into 2022. Coming to hazard allowance, everybody agreed that the discussion is still ongoing and therefore government wants to finish it up. We agreed with the NMA position that they don’t want to discuss holistically anymore as an association and that they have their own peculiarities that are not the same as other health workers. We are going to do two meetings, one for NMA and affiliates and one for JOHESU. But we are taking the meetings concurrently so that we don’t run into troubled quarters. We are starting next week. We also agreed on the migration of doctors on GFMIS from some university teaching hospitals, like University College Hospital Ibadan, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital and University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, which had recruited doctors on GFMIS and was unable to pay them when GFMIS was tampered with. We can resume when we verify those people. They can be there until the recruitment is perfected in order to migrate them to IPPIS. In this wise, the Head of Service has granted waiver and revalidation of old waivers for the University of Port Harcourt and waivers for University College Ibadan and Calabar. But this is not without reprimand for CMDs who have flouted government regulations by recruiting people into the service without fulfilling the requirements of circular on this. On the controversial issue of NSIWC circular, removing doctors in academia from CONMESS and also doctors who are doubling as honorary consultants/lecturers from CONMESS to CONUAS, we have even before their request treated one leg of it by obeying the court’s order already gotten by them. In the spirit of dialogue, we said further discussions should continue with NSIWC. NMA has undertaken that they should tell the two members and their association to do an out-of-court settlement by withdrawing the matter from the industrial court until we finish the negotiation. We gave a time for negotiation. We have empanelled a committee with NMA leading including NSIWC, Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of labour and others in the team. The first inaugural meeting is Tuesday (Aug. 31); we are hopeful that this meeting will give us suggestions on how to resolve the matter. We have before now made contact with the Governors’ Forum on these matters and the onus is now on us as the Ministry of Labour to talk to the Governors’ Forum and impress on them on the need for this to be done. The Medical Residency Training and accompanying Fund is already in the Act which the Federal Government has signed. We will impress it on them as part of strengthening the health system so that we are not starved of specialist doctors. There is an urgent need for them to adopt that. This will also help us to stem the issue of brain drain. The Federal Government cannot employ everybody. We want state governments to pay more attention to secondary and tertiary health”

The minimum wage bill has been passed into law in April 2019 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the provisions of the law, all employers in the country are expected to pay their workers not less than the stipulated amount, which is N30, 000.

But some states governors are yet to pay the minimum wages.

While faulting the governors yet to pay the N30,000 wages, Ngige said negotiations were ongoing between him and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over instituting legal actions against governors who have faulted in paying the new minimum wage.

The Minister disclosed this during his appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, stating that governors not paying the minimum wage were breaching the law of Nigeria.

According to Ngige: “If you read the Act well, you will see the applicability of the Act. The applicability is that all parts of the Federation (Section II); Section III also says N30,000 shall be paid, the operating word is shall.

“It does not give room for picking and choosing, it is a must. The state governors that are not paying are breaching the law of the land.

“This is a national law that states what you will pay to the lowest-paid employee (worker) in your establishment; state governments are employers… they are caught in the web of this law until repealed.

“I am negotiating with the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF); the law permits me to take them to court.

“I can take any employer to court. If governors have immunity, I can start from the secretary to the government, to the head of service, and go down to the State Executive Council; take them all to court and I do not need any permission.”