ASUU/FG STAND OFF: Agreement With ASUU Can't Be Implemented - FG

A DECLARATION that is likely to infuriate the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and further aggravate the on-going industrial action by the union has come from the Federal Government Tuesday in Abuja when it said that the agreement reached with ASUU is impossible to implement by its nature.

However, it was quick to express his optimism of finding a way out of the quagmire soon.

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chukwuemeka Wogu, made this known when he appeared before the People Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC) Tuesday  to render his achievements as a minister, appointed under the platform of the ruling party.


Wogu, who was briefing the Bamanga Tukur-led committee at the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the
PDP made the relative industrial peace and harmony being enjoyed over a long time in the country, employment and job creation, social security and improvement in the national minimum wage and its implementation as vital highlights of his performance.

He told the PDP national chairman and his members of committee that he met on ground an agreement signed by the previous government with ASUU when he resumed as the Minister of Labour, but stated that the agreement is impossible to implement.

But the minister declared that the present administration, led by President Goodluck Jonathan is finding a way out and doing everything possible to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of everybody.

His words: “I inherited an agreement signed by the Federal Government with ASUU and that agreement is practically impossible for any administration to implement. We are still discussing with them, if I leave here, I am going to the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) where we are meeting with them. I hope that very soon, we will resolve it.”

On the job creation efforts of the government, he stated that presently the Community Service Scheme Women and Youth Empowerment Programme of the Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) of the Federal Government has already engaged 120,000 persons out of the 185,000 targeted for the year 2013.

He pointed out that as social security is an evolving structure, Nigeria is still basically trying to grow the concept to an acceptable international standard.

“We are at the stage of putting in place a social security policy that would reflect the nation’s needs and level of economic development, taking into consideration the traditional as well as the modern socio-cultural values and norms,” he said.

Wogu also stressed that the passage of the Employee Compensation Act in 2010 has resuscitated the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund and it is now spearheading the Employees Compensation Scheme for workers that sustain injury in the workplace.

He also disclosed that the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) is the leading agency in job creation efforts, specialising in skills acquisition and empowerment of the unemployed.

SOURCE: Guardian