Festus Keyamo, SAN, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, has asked parents whose children attend government-owned tertiary institutions to petition the Academic Staff Union of Universities to end the strike, Charmingpro reports
On Monday, February 14, 2022, the academic union declared a nationwide strike, which has continued to this day. The lecturers are demanding the release of university revitalization funds, the release of earned allowances for university lecturers, the implementation of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of university lecturers’ salaries and allowances, and the renegotiation of the ASUU-Federal Government 2009 agreement, among other things.
Several meetings between the strikers and the federal government have resulted in deadlocks. President Buhari directed the Minister of Education last week to resolve the crisis within two weeks. On Thursday, August 4, the ultimatum expired.
Keyamo said this evening that the government had done its best and urged parents to “beg” ASUU.
“When they went on strike, we intervened; what is the procedure beyond that?” We called them to a meeting even before the strike began; what manner is more than that? It’s not like we let them go on strike first while we slept; as soon as the talks began, they went on strike again.
You cannot allow one sector of the economy to suffocate you and then blackmail you into borrowing N1.2 trillion when our total income is around N6.1 trillion and we have roads, health centers, and other sectors to address.
I’ll tell the parents and everyone else to go and beg ASUU, as the President said the other day, and those who know them to appeal to their patriotism. “The nation cannot come to a halt because we want to address ASUU’s demands,” he said.