Osinbajo takes over negotiation with ASUU

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has taken over the leadership of the Federal Government’s negotiation team with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, disclosed this yesterday while briefing State House reporters on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Government is leaving no stone unturned to make sure that we reach a conclusive agreement with ASUU so that they can go back to the class room. This is the first national strike that this government is facing and we want to discuss.

“At council today, the Vice President has taken over some of the aspects of the negotiations and discussions.

“So, we are continuing the meeting in his office and when we finish meeting, we will get back to ASUU for another round of meeting and we are hopeful that we will be able to go to an appreciable extent to solve some of the outstanding issues that is preventing them from going back to work,” he said.

The minister said the private sector was delaying the announcement of the chairman of new minimum wage review committee.

“The national minimum wage committee, the government side is ready. We have on the government side four ministers - ministers of labour and employment, finance, budget and planning, I can’t remember the last one now but we have our team ready.

“We also have the Head of Service of the Federation, Acting Secretary to the Government of the Federation on the government team. The chairman will be unveiled when we have full component of the committee.

He said the organized private sector has eight representatives out of which the Nigeria Employers Committee Assembly (NECA) has four, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has two, Nigeria Association of Small Medium Enterprise (NASME) has one and NACCIMA one.

So far, he said, only MAN submitted its two nominees.