Past govt responsible for persistent ASUU strike – Education minister

Published November 2, 2020

The Minister of Education , Malam Adamu Adamu , has blamed a previous administration for the continuous strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

Although Adamu was not specific on which administration he was referring to , he said that that government shouldn ’ t have entered into an agreement with ASUU to pay them N 1 . 3 trilion when it knew it couldn ’t pay it .

He said this while answering a question asked him by a Corp Member on the persistent ASUU strike , during a Town Hall meeting on security issues tagged ‘ Engaging the Youth and Communities ’ at the Multi - Purpose Indoor Sports Hall Complex Bauchi on Monday which was organized by the State government at the instance of the federal government.

He said the insolvable problem that had resulted in incessant strikes by the ASUU was that ‘ a government in this country went and sat down with ASUU and agreed on some conditions that it would pay universities N 1 . 3 trillion ’ .

“I do believe that while they were signing that agreement , they knew that it is not possible for them to implement it . There is just nowhere N 1 . 3 trn will come out from .

“I think the basic problem between the ASUU side and the government side has been deciding on what to do about this N 1 . 3 trillion . If a government appends its signature to an agreement , it is an agreement, ” he said.

The Education Minister said that the government was not happy that the strike was still on promising, however , that an agreement would soon be reached by the government and ASUU .

“We are not happy that our campuses are closed , we are not happy that the calendar of schools has been disrupted . But the fault is the government that signed to do what it knew it could not do .

“But I assure you that we are on the verge of reaching an agreement and very, very soon , we will reach an agreement with them. ”

Also responding to a question raised by a teacher, Adamu said the President has pledged to be paying anyone who intends to be trained as a teacher immediately after secondary school .

He said : “There is a pension scheme exclusively for teachers . All teachers ’ children will be taught free in school . They won’ t pay a single Kobo in the course of training their children .

“The government also approved special allowances for rural postings, like hardship allowance . ”

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Setback hits resumption as FG makes U-turn, kicks against ASUU's condition for ending strike....

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has come under attack as the federal government described the condition set by the body before it can end its strike as "unreasonable."

It would be recalled that ASUU said it would end the strike action after its home-grown University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) has passed the federal government's integrity test.

Speaking in an interview with The Punch, the association's national leader and president, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, gave the assurance with questions popping up on when the lecturers will resume back to classrooms.

ASUU was expected to call off its strike and mandate lecturers to resume back to lecture rooms on Wednesday, October 21, after striking a unilateral agreement with the representatives of the federal government.

But Ogunyemi said UTAS, which is a payment system developed by ASUU in place of the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), is still going through an integrity test handled by NITDA.

Reacting to the ASUU's stance, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, said ASUU's demand is ridiculous because varsity lecturers cannot determine how they should be paid by their employers which is the federal government.

"I don't know whether you know how many groups, organisations and associations receiving a salary from the federal account. So, if everybody is doing their own platform, imagine how many payment platforms government will have to deal with it."

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Meanwhile, ASUU has raised an alarm over what the body termed as a deliberate attempt to strangulate public education in Nigeria.

Speaking during a Town and Gown meeting at the African Hall in the University of Ilorin, Kwara state, ASUU president Ogunyemi said the lecturers' body is being neglected by the federal government because "there were plans to make education inaccessible to the poor.