The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has taken a swipe at Nigerian varsity lecturers for the lingering strike action, claiming that they have no children studying in Nigerian public universities.
Ngige who made the claims while answering questions on Arise TV on Monday morning, rebuked remarks that the government was not interested in resolving the issue with university lecturers, because their children school abroad.
According to him: “I have three biological children in public schools. They are in public schools; they are not in private universities.
“Unlike ASUU members who have most of their children in private universities, three of mine are here. So, I am a very big stakeholder in the public tertiary school system.
“Two of them have American citizenship; they can be in America but I choose them to be here with me.”
Ngige went on to reiterate that the Federal Government’s commitment to ending the eight-month strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
It is worthwhile to note that the Federal Government has accepted ASUU’s demand that lecturers be exempted from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The government also offered to increase the Earned Allowances to university staff from N30 billion to N35b and the Revitalization Fund from N20b to N25b.
