Maduako Igbokwe I Thursday, May 25, 2023
AWKA, Anambra, Nigeria – Academic Staff Unions of Universities (ASUU),Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) Awka, Anambra State has stated that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige’s incurable phobia for ASUU has eclipsed his sense of decency.
ASUU NAU in a statement issued by the chairman Comrade Stephen Ufoaroh and Secretary Comrade Peter Okoye on Thursday stated that Ngige has been insensitive to the plight of ASUU members.
They accused the minister of being partial in the payment of his colleagues and probably kinsmen the eight months arrears of salaries without any verifiable evidence of the work purportedly done during the period.
They stated that all lecturers at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka participated in the 2022 ASUU national strike and did not see reason for Ngige to chose those he pays.
ASUU said that the minister has been using ‘divide and rule’ in presiding over the affairs university lecturers.
The statement reads,”The attention of the ASUU NAU has been drawn to the false claims by the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige that ASUU members in three faculties of the institution namely: Basic Medical Sciences, Basic Clinical Sciences and Medicine did not partake in the 2022 ASUU national strike.
Recall that the 2022 ASUU national strike lasted between February 14 and October 17, 2022 and all the academic staff members of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka participated fully in the strike. The claim by Dr. Chris Ngige, that lecturers in the aforementioned three faculties did not participate in the strike is totally false, misleading, dishonorable and unworthy of a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Chris Ngige has cajoled his colleagues in the medical field into the ignoble act of claiming that they were on duty during the pendency of the strike in an effort to split the ranks of the union. Lecturers in these three faculties ought to realise that as intellectuals, they have a divine responbility to defend the truth. The absolute truth is that there was no teaching and consequently no examination was conducted throughout the period of the struggle.
Dr Ngige’s incurable phobia for ASUU has eclipsed his sense of decency and he has gone ahead to pay his colleagues and probably kinsmen the eight months arrears of salaries without any verifiable evidence of the work purportedly done during the period.
The big question is, what is in it for NGIGE?
This obvious action of ‘divide and rule’ bespeaks the usual (Dis) honourable Minister’s insensitivity to the plight of universities in a country where every institution and every household has become a municipality. It is sad and most unfortunate that Dr Chris Ngige and his collaborators have continued in their shameful and ignoble acts against the growth of public Universities even at the twilight of their administration.
All lecturers at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka participated in the 2022 ASUU National Strike, Period.
For the records, there are concrete and verifiable evidences from memos and publications from the university that counter the false and trumped up claims of the minister, as evidenced in various memos of the university administration relating to the closing and re-opening of the University consequent upon the strike. Chris Ngige need to purge himself of personal animus towards ASUU”
