Reconsider your position on indefinite strike - FG tells ASUU

The Federal Government has asked the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to reconsider its position on industrial strike.

 In a statement issued on Tuesday August 30, the federal government which reiterated that it has done so much for the education sector, especially universities, stated that it wouldn’t be out of place for major stakeholders in governance, like the members of the National Assembly, to leverage on what the government has done so far to see if the striking lecturers can go back to the classrooms. 

 Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah who said this in a presentation to the Senate Committee (Tertiary Institutions and TETfund) during an oversight visit to the Federal Ministry of Education on Tuesday August 30, in Abuja, insisted that the federal government has done the necessary things for ASUU to resume classes. 

 Opiah, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media/Public Affairs, Kelechi Mejuobi, said contrary to the wrong impression being held about the position of the federal government, all demands of ASUU have been met.

 He also said the federal government only came up with a standard principle of “no work, no pay” which he said was a universal policy the university teachers are expected to imbibe and let go. The statement added; “Government has yielded to all the demands of ASUU. 

The only thing is that government doesn’t support anyone who doesn’t work but wants pay” Opiah, who represented the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu also said that TETfund has done more than expected by throwing in trillions of naira into the system, more than what ASUU requested for the infrastructural development of universities in the country, adding that issues related to their welfare have also been settled.

 Insisting that a stakeholders’ dialogue on education can’t be ruled out from having a perfect system in the sector, the Minister stated that the involvement of other stakeholders will vindicate the position of government in the matter.

 The Nation reported that the Minister solicited the support of the Senate on Tertiary Institutions and TETfund for financial support to the new institutions of higher learning created by the federal government towards the end of the 2021, as bail-out request had been made to the minister of finance, budget and national planning for support to the institutions.