The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, said during the North-East stakeholders’ town hall meeting on Tertiary Education Trust Fund intervention on Monday in Bauchi that the reason the ASUP strike has persisted is because of the refusal of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics to accept the payment of N40bn emolument it demanded in two installments.
According to him, the government met with the leadership of ASUP in January where the union asked the Federal Government to pay N40bn; which the government agreed to pay in two installments. The union’s leadership later came back and demanded that the N40bn be paid at once.
Wike, who said the Federal Government had made more investment in the education sector than any other administration in the past also stated that the government has met almost four of the six demands ASUP made.
He debunked the idea and propaganda that the government is not interested in polytechnic education, saying that the government is very much interested in ensuring that the students get back to school but the refusal of ASUP to accept the N40bn in two installments is the reason the strike has lingered.
