Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has contradicted Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige’s assertion about a scheduled meeting to address the ongoing strike by university lecturers on Thursday, June 23.
Ngige, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, June 22, had stated that the federal government would soon address the issues with the ASUU strike and that concerns over payment platforms would be discussed in the next meeting, set for Thursday.
Responding to the claim in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, June 24, Osodeke stated that the union did not receive any invitation from the minister.
He also called for Ngige’s removal from the negotiation process, alleging that Ngige had exacerbated the situation.
In his words;
“We were not invited to any meeting. None of our members were invited. We have a secretariat but we never received any invitation from them.
“The problem we have with this government, especially with the minister of labour, is that if you can publicize a meeting as fixed when it wasn’t, how can we believe other statements you have made?
“He should confirm to the world that he sent an invitation to ASUU for a meeting on Thursday.
“The minister of labour should leave us to deal with the minister of education. He was the one that exacerbated this matter to this extent. He was the one that decided to use hunger as a weapon when he said no work, no pay.”