FG says most of its agreements with ASUU were reached under duress

Sonny Echono, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, has said that most of the agreements the Federal Government had with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were reached under duress. 

Echono said this during a retreat organised by the governing council of the University of Abuja, on Thursday, December 10, 2021.

The Federal Government and the union have for years been at loggerheads over the former’s failure to meet the demands of the union members. 

According to the permanent secretary, most of the agreements the government had with the union were imperfect.

“I have heard so much about the fact that the government has failed to honour the agreements with ASUU. I have a different view about that because most of these agreements are imperfect, he said.

“If somebody comes to my house and puts a gun to my head, I might agree to everything because those agreements are signed under duress. If you want to introduce obligations or responsibilities on their part, they will insist you cannot.”

Meanwhile, ASUU is reportedly planning to embark on another industrial action. 

According to Punch, a member of the union disclosed that ASUU would soon decide whether to go on strike or not at the end of its scheduled zonal conferences on December 15, 2021.

The source said the decision to go on strike would depend on the outcome of the zonal press briefings.