Hope James
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has called on the Nigerian parents whose children are at home due to the ongoing ASUU strike to go and beg the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to end its months-long strike.
Keyamo who said this on a monitored Tv programme, also stated that the Federal government have scheduled meetings with the striking lecturers inorder to call off the strike to no avail.
In his words: “The moment ASUU went on strike we intervened. What is the manner again beyond that? The moment they declared the strike even when the strike began, we called them to a meeting.
“What manner is more than that? It’s not that we left them, to go on strike first and we were sleeping. And three months later we said okay can we start talking.
“The moment they declared, we immediately called them and said let us start talking. And as the talk started they still went on strike.
“You cannot allow one sector of the economy to hold you by the jugular and then blackmail you to go and borrow N1.2 trillion for overheads when our total income would be about N6.1 trillion. And you have roads to build, health centres to build, other sectors to take care of.
“Parents should go and beg ASUU. Like the President said the other time, those who know them, appeal to their sense of patriotism. Do you want me to kneel down as a parent also? I can kneel down on air and beg them. It has come to that point, let them go back to classes. They are not the only one in Nigeria. They are not the only ones feeding from the federal purse. The nation cannot grind to a halt because we want to take care of the demands of ASUU.’’
Recall that, ASUU has been on strike since February this year, demanding the withdrawal of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system, IPPIS, and adoption of the University, Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS. They equally seek the University Peculiar Payroll and Payment System, U3PS or UPPPS for the non-academic unions, among others.