By Our Reporter
The Federal Government through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has said the Academic Staff Union of Universities,(ASUU) should be blamed for further delay in calling of the prolonged eight-month strike after the government has presented them with a new offer.
Ngige said during an interview that the delay in calling off the strike is as a result of consultations with its members before returning to the negotiation table.
The Minister on a television programme today said the offer is one of the best the government had ever presented to ASUU since resolution meeting with them saying there is no reason why they should reject the offer; everything they ask for has been granted and I don’t see any reason why they should reject the offer.
“But I told them before they left that asking the entire nation and the students to wait from Friday to Friday is not nice as they should have come back to us by Tuesday. They have done that before when we negotiated with the Senate President. The offer was made on a Thursday and they came back to us on a Tuesday”.
“So, that’s what I expect them to do this time around. If they do so, the nation will appreciate them and regard them as patriotic citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I expect them to get back to me much earlier than Friday,” Said Ngige on arise TV Interview.
In our earlier report, the government offered to exempt ASUU for now while UTAS is still under integrity test and also increase the Earned Allowances to university staff from N30 billion to N35b as well the revitalization Fund from N20b to N25b.
It is hoped that ASUU will return to the negotiation table this Friday and announce the termination of their strike hopefully.