Ngige to ASUU: Obey court ruling first

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, New York

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has advised the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to obey the National Industrial Court ruling and call off its ongoing nationwide strike, while negotiations are ongoing.

He gave the advice while fielding questions from journalists at the Federal Government of Nigeria, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and European Union: HighLevel Side Event on the Margins of the 77th of the United Nations General Assembly and the official launch of the Nigeria Integrated National Financing Framework Report (NIFF).

The court had, on Wednesday, ordered ASUU to call off its ongoing nationwide strike, pending the determination of a suit filed by the federal government.

Ngige, while responding to a question on how soon ASUU would call off the strike with the ruling, said: “I’m not ASUU, but the maximum in law is that, when there is a court judgment or ruling or order, you must first obey and then we can apply for an appeal if you so desire or apply for stay that is stay of execution.

“So the maximum in law, jurisprudence, and everything about the law is that you obey the court’s ruling, judgment or order, no matter how bad. The qualifying thing is that, no matter how bad and no matter how you disagree with it, you first obey.  Like the military people say, obey before complaining.

“So we expect them to get back to the classrooms, but that doesn’t foreclose negotiations. The negotiations should be on as a matter of fact, it will be on officially and non officially. For example, the House of Representatives had invited us to come and brief them, and, together, they are stakeholders. You heard Mr President said to the Committee of Pro-Chancellors when they visited him that he would do consultation regarding the two request on putting an icing on the cake on the government offer to ASUU members and the issue of resettlement fund to cushion the effect of the ‘no work no pay’ situation they found themselves in.

“So, the President will look at it. The House of Reps members are stakeholders; ministers are not only stakeholders, we are advisers to Mr. President by the provisions of the Constitution, Section 5 of the Constitution and 147 that appoint ministers one from each state of the federation, and we hold regular meetings with him, so we are his chief advisers.

“So, we will interface with the House of Representatives, and all of us collectively will advise Mr. President.”