The Academic Staff Union of Universities has condemned the Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, over his comments that the union is making new “outrageous” demands, describing it as a lie.
The union said it had only asked President Goodluck Jonathan to facilitate the endorsement of resolutions reached with him and to also be signed by top government official preferably the Attorney-General of the Federation but not a permanent secretary.
National Treasurer of ASUU, Dr. Ademola Aremu, stated the position of the union while speaking in Ibadan on Wednesday. Aremu praised the intervention of Jonathan but pointed out that some of the resolutions reached with him were not contained in the letter sent to the union.
ASUU said its representative and President of Nigeria Labour Congress should stand as witnesses when the document was to be signed.
The union added that it wanted the N200bn agreed as 2013 revitalization fund for public universities to be kept with the Central Bank of Nigeria and disbursed to the benefiting universities.
Aremu said Wike should have told Nigerians that apart from the N30bn earned allowances released for university staff, the government had yet to release any other fund.
He said, “We are not making fresh demands. In fact, the National Executive Council of the union would have suspended the strike but the concern of our congresses is that many of the things agreed with the President, during the November 4 meeting, were not included in the letter signed by a permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Mark Nwobiala.”
He promised that the strike would end as soon as the omissions were corrected in the new resolution.
