Ngige ‘forced’ ASUU to resume teaching – Osodeke
Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says the minister of labour Chris Ngige forced lecturers to resume teaching.
“In trade dispute, especially one involving university academics, the best option is negotiation and then you end it within a very short time,” he said during his appearance on Channels television.
He added, “But the minister of labour believes that the best way is to force them to class. It’s so sad, but because of the interest of the Nigerian students, their parents, and the speaker, our members will teach.
“Any country that plays with education creates room for insecurity.
“We want the next administration to follow the trend of neighbouring countries and allocate not less than 16 percent of the budget to education. When this is done, these problems will be sorted out. Our children will go to school effortlessly.”
“The major reason we are resuming is because we are obeying the court order”.
“The issues have not been fully resolved and no agreement has been signed.
“So, we are resuming because we are a law abiding body and we don’t want to break the law. We are also hoping that the intervention of the speaker, as promised by him, will resolve these problems in a very short time,” Osodeke said.
ASUU began its industrial dispute on February 14 but suspended it last week following intervention by Speaker, House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila.
On October 7, the court of appeal sitting in Abuja ordered the union to call off its strike. The ruling came on the heels of an earlier one by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, asking the lecturers to return to classroom.
