By Adadainfo
President Muhammadu Buhari has come under fire after the minister of state for labour and employment, Festus Keyamo, sought parents to beg the Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off its about five months’ industrial action.
Mr Keyamo, spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign, during an interview with the Channels TV, admitted that the FG was broke.
According to him, the meetings ASUU had with the Nimi Briggs Committee were done without the input from the ministry of finance and other agencies, hence rendering the committee’s recommendations ‘unrealistic’.
According to him, “The proposal ASUU is talking about is N1.2 trillion. I will tell the parents, go and beg ASUU. Like the president said, those who know them should appeal to their sense of patriotism.
”Do you want me to kneel down and beg ASUU on air as a parent also? I can kneel down to beg them. The nation cannot grind to a halt because we want to take care of the demands of ASUU.”
A retired lecturer, John Ehirim, told our correspondent that, “By Keyamo’s statement, President Buhari has admitted that he has lost control of Nigeria. Even if Nigeria is broke and needs the understanding of ASUU, what has the federal government done to reduce the cost of governance? They are there squandering our wealth, and refuse to take care of our education sector because the poor are the ones schooling at public schools.”
A businessman, Tochukwu Eze, said, “Let Keyamo tell us how he and his colleagues in the Buhari cabinet broke Nigeria. This government is simply clueless, and that is why Nigeria is gradually becoming bankrupt. The ASUU strike should continue in earnest. We need a permanent solution to this unending problem.”
A labour activist, Chike Okezie, said, “The plan was to use hunger to force ASUU to return to classes. But the resoluteness of the lecturers has told the federal government that even their inhuman adoption of withholding salaries of lecturers since the strike started, lecturers still live. We are waiting for 2023 to use our votes to make a statement. The bad leaders are already afraid.”
