I will knee down for ASUU to call off strike, Keyamo begs

The Minister for State of Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has said he's willing to go any length to ensure that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) call off the ongoing strike.

Pulse reports that academic activities have been come to a halt in government-owned universities following a face-off between ASUU and the Federal Government.

The union has cited failure of the government to meet some of its demands such as the release of the revitalisation funds for universities, rerelease of earned allowances for university lecturers, deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers, renegotiation of the ASUU-Federal Government 2009 agreement as part of the reasons for the industrial action.

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has been under tremendous pressure to find a lasting solution to the incessant strikes amid calls for increase in funding of tertiary institutions.

The president in a recent meeting with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, alongside his other colleagues, ordered his cabinet members involved to find a speedy resolution to the strike action.

Meanwhile, appearing on a Channels Television programme on Friday, August 5, 2022, Keyamo argued that some of the demands made by the union can't be met by the federal government.

He, however, appealed to ASUU to end the strike and return to classroom, adding that he would "kneel down" for them if that would make resolve their grievances.

The Minister also maintained that the government had done its best to meet the union half way and appealed to parents to "beg" ASUU.

He said, “The moment they went on strike, we intervened, what is the manner again beyond that ? Even before the strike began, we called them to a meeting, what manner is more than that? It’s not like we left them to go on strike first and we were sleeping, as the talk started, they still went on strike.

“You can not allow one sector of the economy to hold you down and then blackmail you to go and borrow N1.2 trillion and our total income is around N6.1 trillion and we have roads to build, health centres and other sectors to take care of.

“I will tell the parents, everybody to go and beg ASUU like the President said the other time, those who know them should appeal to their sense of patriotism. The nation can not ground to a halt because we want to take care of the demands of ASUU”.

Pulse reports that ASUU has been on strike for over 170 days.