Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, is making a resolution of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) difficult.
Speaking in an interview on Arise TV, on Wednesday, Jega said Ngige has turned the issue with ASUU into a personal quarrel.
“Unfortunately, right now, the minister of labour is not helping matters. He has turned this into a personal quarrel between him and the minister of education on one hand and between himself and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on the other,” he said.
“While many other people are trying to find a way of addressing this situation so that students can go back to school and ASUU can go back to work, he is busy creating challenges.
“He now took the matter to the industrial court, now today, he now registered two unions and he is trying to proscribe ASUU.
“If this is allowed by this government, I think this is a recipe for disaster and it may really create more problems than it can solve on this matter of strike in the universities.”
The federal government presented a certificate of registration to the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) on Tuesday.
CONUA is a breakaway faction of ASUU.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14. The federal government and the union have failed to reach an agreement over demands bordering on salaries and allowances of lecturers.
There have been many meetings between the government and ASUU, but all the meetings so far ended in a deadlock.
In the last meeting convened by the leadership of the house of representatives, Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, and Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU president, engaged in a heated exchange.
The recognition of the faction by the ministry of labour is seen as an attempt to whittle down the influence of ASUU.
