Hold Education Minister, FG responsible for prolonged strike — ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on Nigerians to hold the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and the Federal Government responsible for the prolonged strike. The union said that the government is not sincere in dealing with them, moreso, all the Federal Government is telling the people about their negotiations is not […]

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on Nigerians to hold the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and the Federal Government responsible for the prolonged strike.

The union said that the government is not sincere in dealing with them, moreso, all the Federal Government is telling the people about their negotiations is not the truth.

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Speaking on Friday at the University of Jos, Plateau State, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Bauchi Zone, Prof Lawan Abubakar, said before being a minister, Adamu has always been in support of ASUU’s agitations/actions, including strikes, as he always urged them to hold the government accountable.

Prof Abubakar said that now, as Adamu has become the Minister of Education he has suddenly turned against ASUU and has been misleading other ministers and the public about the action embarked upon by the union.

The Chairman quoted Adamu to have said in 2013, “This nation owes a debt of gratitude to ASUU, and the strike should not be called off until the government accepts to do and does what is required.

“So, instead of hectoring ASUU to call off the strike, the nation should be praying for more of its kind in other sectors of the economy.”

The professor further said that recently, Adamu Adamu had also said that whatever he wrote on ASUU, he had totally believed in it, even now that he is a minister.

He said, “You may recall that when asked to make his comments on ASUU’s submission to President Buhari on Tuesday, the 9th of January, 2020, Adamu Adamu said he totally agreed with what ASUU presented, upon which note President Buhari handed him ASUU’s document and directed him to come up with a proposal for an amicable solution.

“For the same Adamu Adamu to now lead his colleagues, the other ministers, to misrepresent facts and mislead the good people of Nigeria against ASUU is rather unfortunate. It is the highest level of unpatriotic disservice a minister would do to his nation, particularly in a sector like education which is the backbone of the development of any country.

The ASUU Zonal Coordinator continued, “If this is the way to end the ASUU strike, ASUU-Bauchi Zone is taking exception to it and assuring Adamu Adamu that he is wrong; he has rather succeeded in undermining the future of Nigerian youths and Nigeria. If it would take him six (6) months to only come up with this deceit as a solution to the strike, we then have the right to ask whether he really was serious with education or stage-managing it.

“It has now come to bear, that the minister had all along been deceiving everybody since 2017, as far as ASUU’s agitations in the tenure of this government are concerned. We want the general public to know that the Federal Government through Adamu Adamu did NOT approach ASUU with any reasonable and acceptable solutions to the issues in the contention that led to the current strike.”

Abubakar said another complicit minister in the negotiations was the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, who abandoned the negotiations, and then later began pursuing a presidential bid where he went and ‘gave’ N100 million to buy nomination form, only for him to later withdraw and forfeit the money.

“We are now hearing stories of termites eating up documents related to the expenditure of over 17 billion Naira in NSITF (National Insurance Trust Fund), a parastatal in the Federal Ministry of Labor and Employment where Chris Ngige holds sway as minister. If Ngige would abandon talks with ASUU for his Dead-on-Arrival presidential bid, one would not expect the Minister of Education to do the worst to the Ministry of his charge,” he added.