The Federal Government has expressed optimism that the strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, PASAN will end soon.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, stated this on Thursday night after a conciliation meeting between the Government negotiating team and the two unions.
The Minister said the Government side has made offers to the two unions for them to consult with their various National Executive Committees and revert back.
Ngige noted that a lot of work went into the proposal given by the Government side to the two unions, which substantially addressed their demands for Judicial and legislative autonomy in the 36 states of the country.
He explained further that the proposal was produced by the committee of the Government side, comprising of the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Dayo Apata, the Secretary of the Presidential Committee for the Implementation of Judicial and Legislative Autonomy, Senator Ita Enang, Representative of the National Judicial Council and the Director-General of the Nigerian Governors Forum.
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Ngige said overall, the discussions have been very fruitful, adding that they have moved from the initial position of ground zero, to ground 85, while appealing to the striking workers to return to work to enable the Government meet the remaining part of their demands.
On their part, the Vice Chairman of JUSUN, Emmanuel Abioye and the National President of PASAN, Mohammed Usman, said they were going back to meet with their National Executive Committees to study the situation and consider the offers made before reverting back to the Minister of Labour and Employment.
Meanwhile, Ngige said, the meeting has been adjourned to Tuesday next week, to give room for JUSUN and PASAN to study Government’s proposal, while hoping that the strike will be suspended before then.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
