The Nigerian Labour Congress on Tuesday said it could not advise the Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off its strike.

ASUU has been on strike for the past eight months over the dispute on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as well as unresolved issues from the 2009 agreement.

NLC President Ayuba Wabba said there were a lot of issues in the agreement, which had not been implemented.

He urged the government to show more commitment to implementing the 2009 agreement it signed with ASUU.

Addressing journalists on Tuesday after presenting NLC’s position on six executive bills before the Senate Committee on Aviation, Wabba said the sooner the issues are resolved,

the better for all of us because an idle mind certainly is a devil’s workshop.

Clearly speaking, I think it should be a priority if the issues are resolved so that we could get our wards back to schools,

he said.

Asked if NLC would advise ASUU to resume while negotiations continues, Wabba said:

That is not how negotiations are done. If before the action commences, we were able to reach a negotiation, then we would have resolved the issues.

We’re already on the action before those issues arose. I don’t think that is the best way to go. Government should show enough commitment to resolve the issue once and for all.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.