Pascal Arogorn Ibe
The Minister of Labour and Employment , Dr . Chris Ngige , will today meet with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in a bid to end the over six months strike by the university lecturers.
A statement by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations at the ministry , Mr Charles Akpan said Ngige would host a meeting with ASUU in Abuja , today.
ASUU had embarked on an indefinite industrial action following its opposition to the government ’ s move to enforce the use of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System for salary payment.
The union had instead , insisted on a different payment platform , the University Transparency Account System .
But indications that the strike action may soon be resolved emerged on Tuesday when ASUU was summoned to a meeting by the Senate President , Senator Ahmad Lawan along with Ngige .
The meeting , chaired by Lawan, also had in attendance , the Minister of Education , Mallam Adamu Adamu , the Accountant -General of the Federation , Ahmed Idris and the ASUU leadership led by the President , Prof Biodun Ogunyemi .
Addressing journalists after the three -hour closed session, Ngige said ASUU had shown how the UTAS they developed could work , adding that the demonstration would continue.
“ We will involve other government agencies who would also come and assess it . Discussions on it are not foreclosed yet.
“ UTAS is a homegrown software . It is what we call local content that Mr President is encouraging . It will be considered by the government , ” Ngige added .
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