BY FOLASHADE KEHINDE
THE Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has said that, contrary to the claim by the Academic Staff Union of Universities that Federal Government officials have not been keen on ending the lingering strike because their children school abroad, he is a big stakeholder in Nigeria’s public tertiary school system.
Ngige disclosed that his children, even the ones with dual nationality, were in public schools in Nigeria and not private universities.
He made the clarification during an interview monitored by our correspondent on Arise TV.
The minister said if anyone must be keen on seeing a quick end to the ASUU strike, that person should be him because his children were neither abroad nor in private universities.
According to him, this is unlike many of the ASUU members whose children are in private universities.
“I have three biological children in public schools. They are not in private universities. Unlike ASUU members who have most of their children in private universities, three of mine are here. So, I am a very big stakeholder in the public tertiary school system,” Ngige declared.
“When ASUU says politicians don’t care because they have taken their children abroad, Chris Ngige cares because my children are not abroad, even though they have dual nationality. Two of them have American citizenship. They can be in America but I choose them to be here with me. So, ASUU cannot accuse me of not being nationalistic enough. Anything that will help the university system here, I am at the forefront,” the minister noted.
Ngige had said over the weekend that the media misquoted representatives of government with reports that lecturers had been exempted from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
But the Federal Government, after months of deadlock, agreed to increase university staff’s earned allowances from N30bn to N35bn and revitalisation fund from N20bn to N25bn, among other resolutions.
However, ASUU has yet to come out with a definite position on the matter even though the Law Students Association of Nigeria has dragged the Union to court, demanding N10bn compensation over the lingering strike action.
