FG Vows to End Strikes in Tertiary Institutions

The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to ending industrial actions in Nigerian tertiary institutions, pledging to maintain stronger engagements with academic unions and to honour existing agreements.

Speaking during a televised interview on Channels Television, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, said the era of strikes, especially by university lecturers and other tertiary institution unions, must come to an end under the present administration.

“The President has directed that not again, and I’ll borrow your word, not again ever in this country will ASUU or all our tertiary institution trade unions, go on strike,” the minister said.

He stressed the importance of trust-building and consistency in government dealings with unions to ensure sustainable peace in the education sector.

“There has to be a lot of relationship-building with ASUU, NASU, SANU, COEASU, everybody. And beyond that, the government demonstrating goodwill. Government meeting its obligations to these unions,” he said.

Alausa criticised the failure of previous governments to implement negotiated agreements, attributing it to the recurring breakdown in industrial harmony within the sector.

“They sit, they agree, they go and say, tell us when you’re going to implement this. But over the years, government will just renege on those agreements. But that’s not what we’re doing now. We’re talking with them actively,” he said.

On the issue of delayed salaries, which has been a source of discontent among academic staff, the minister clarified that the government had not defaulted on salary payments. Instead, he linked recent delays to the transition from the IPPIS platform to GIFMIS.

“We’re paying salaries. We’re paying salaries regularly. What just happened is that after the tertiary institutions went off IPPIS, which was very restrictive to them, the President graciously agreed to that. They are now on GIFMIS so that they have better control of their funds.

“The way government pays its salary, they start from the 25th of the month. They pay people on IPPIS as first-line priority. And that’s why what happened in the last six months is, where I’m not happy about it, they’ve been paid around the 8th or 9th of the following month,” he explained.

Alausa maintained that efforts are ongoing to address salary system challenges and to strengthen communication between the government and tertiary institutions.