Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, made this known when he appeared before the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC) on Tuesday to render account of his achievements as a minister, appointed on the platform of the ruling party.
Chief Wogu, who was briefing the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led committee at the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the PDP noted 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 Minium wage and its implementation as vital highlights of his performance.
Chief Wogu told the PDP National Chairman and members of his 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.
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.
He said: "I inherited an agreement signed by the Federal Government with ASUU and that agreement was 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.
With the passing of the Employee Compensation Act in 2010, he said the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund was resuscitated and currently functioning, adding that it has the new mandate to provide social security services to the disadvantaged and vulnerable members of the society.
He said that the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has been in the fore-front of job creation, especially in the area of skills acquisition and empowerment of unemployed people.
States and private varsities should not go on strike – Gov Aliyu
Niger State Governor, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu has said that lecturers of states and private universities in the country should not join federal university staff to embark on industrial action, as the strike embarked upon by ASUU lingers on.
He stated this in Minna on Tuesday when he received members of the governing board of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University( IBBU) Lapai who paid him a courtesy call at the government house,
He argued that in a federation, what obtains at the Federal level should not necessarily obtain at the state level especially if the demands of the aggrieved lecturers were not the same.
'The union at the centre cannot ask people at the state to go on strike, state universities are like private universities, they cannot go on strike just because their colleagues at the Federal universities are on strike," he said.
ASUU disowns UNILORIN chapter chairman
As more controversies trail the ongoing strike by ASUU, members of the Ilorin zone of the union have disowned another university lecturer, who is also a contentious chairman of its University of Ilorin chapter, Professor Abdulwahab Egbewole, declaring that he is not in a position to speak for the union.
But Professor Egbewole, who reacted swiftly in a telephone interview, has challenged the chairmen of ASUU in other universities in the zone, pointing out that they were taking part in an illegal industrial action.
They further alleged that the professor, who they said had been axed from the union and whose 'election' had been declared null and void by a competent court of law, had been making statements inimical to the success of the ongoing strike embarked upon by members of the union.
ASUU made this disclaimer in a statement dated 16 July, entitled; "Of Impostors and Outlaws at the University Of Ilorin: ASUU's Statement on the comments by one professor Wahab Egbewole on the Industrial Action of the Union," but circulated to journalists on Tuesday.
Signed by Dr Ayan Ayanleke of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Professor Akinola A. P. of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Dr Seye Abiona of the Osun State University, Osogbo, Dr. Alex Odiyi of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Dr. Oyegoke O. O. of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso and Dr. Busuyi Mekusi of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, all chairmen of the various chapters, the statement said the claim by Professor Egbewole that he was not part of the strike because he was not contacted by the national organ of ASUU was an insult.
"In the past few weeks, the press had been inundated by statements made by one Professor Abdulwahab Egbewole of the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, purportedly on behalf of Unilorin ASUU. The statements expressed Professor Egbewole's opposition to the current national industrial action of the union.
"To add insult to injury, Professor Egbewole also said that he was not part of the ongoing strike action partly because he was not consulted by national office of ASUU. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) wishes to state for the umpteenth time that Professor Egbewole is an impostor who is not known and has never been known as an officer of the union. He has been expelled from the union as far back as 2002 (see the advert in The Punch of December 23, 2004, page 9).
"More seriously, the National Industrial Court has, on Febuary 23, 2013 through Honourable Justice O. A. Obaseki-Osaghae, declared the kangaroo 'election' of Professor Egbewole and others as illegal.
"Egbewole's continued statements and actions purportedly in the name of ASUU, therefore, constitute a slap in the face of the judicial system of this country," the statement read.
