The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa has said that the Federal Government is committed to ending the era of strikes in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, promising improved engagement and fulfilment of agreements with academic unions.
During an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday, the minister said that President Bola Tinubu had issued a firm directive to prevent further disruptions in tertiary education.
‘The President has directed that not again, and I’ll borrow your word, not again ever in this country will ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities,) or all our tertiary institution trade unions, go on strike’, Alausa said.
He emphasised the need for better relations with unions and for government to demonstrate sincerity.
‘There has to be a lot of relationship-building with ASUU, NASU (Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions), SSANU (Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities), and COEASU (Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union), everybody. And beyond that, the government demonstrating goodwill. Government meeting its obligations to these unions’, he said.
Alausa said previous administrations had failed to implement agreements reached with the unions.
‘They sit, they agree, they go and say, tell us when you’re going to implement this. But over the years, government will just renege on those agreements. But that’s not what we’re doing now. We’re talking with them actively’, he said.
Addressing concerns about salary delays raised by some lecturers, Alausa clarified that the government had not stopped paying wages.
‘We’re paying salaries. We’re paying salaries regularly. What just happened is that after the tertiary institutions went off IPPIS (Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System), which was very restrictive to them, the President graciously agreed to that. They are now on GIFMIS (Government Integrated Financial Management Information System) so that they have better control of their funds.
‘The way government pays its salary, they start from the 25th of the month. They pay people on IPPIS as first-line priority. And that’s why what happened in the last six months is, where I’m not happy about it, they’ve been paid around the 8th or 9th of the following month’, he explained.
