NAAT Faults Govt, Sympathize with Students Over Long Closure of Varsities

The National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT on Wednesday said it sympathized with Nigerian students over the long closure of public universities.

NAAT also said that the Federal Government should be blamed for the snail speed in the negotiation process to resolve the lingering strike.

The association’s position was contained in a statement issued by its President, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma which was made available to journalists in Abuja.

Comrade Nwokoma, who called on relevant stakeholders and well meaning Nigerians to prevail on the government to bring the ongoing negotiation to a logical end, said that NAAT was tired of signing Memorandum of Action, MoA or Memorandum of Understanding, MoU with timelines that are not implemented at the end of the day.

The statement read in part: “We wish to put it on record and also put the records straight that the Federal Government should be blamed for the lingering strike action by the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).

“The truth is that we are tired of signing Memorandum of Action or Understanding with timelines with Government for which Government has over time failed woefully to abide by.

“The leadership of the union sympathies with the students for which its children are part of and therefore re-states its commitment to go back to work but wish to plead with well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Government to as a matter of urgency bring the Negotiations to a logical conclusion as soon as possible

“It is important to re-state the following:

“The union had a conciliatory meeting with the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment on the 6th of May, 2022 and another tripartite plus meeting chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President at the villa on the 12th of May, 2022. Unfortunately none of these meetings yielded the desired results.

“The meetings of 21st of March and 21st of April, 2022 with the Renegotiation Committee is by all ramifications slow as no financial commitment has been made by Government to our union apart from the recent meetings by a sister union with Government.

“NAAT therefore pleads with Government to hasten up the process of the Renegotiation to enable all outstanding issues to be sorted out amicably.”