New Telegraph

I’m surprised ASUU is on strike –Education Minister

…blames Federal Character principle for discriminatory cut-off marks for students

Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has expressed surprise that members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had resolved to embark on a month-long warning strike. The minister said this while responding to a question on what the government intended to do to address the grievances of the lecturers after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa yesterday. The minister, who raised the hope of the government reaching an agreement with ASUU soon, said all issues raised by the university teachers were being addressed.

“The last thing that happened was that our committee looked at their demands but there are renegotiations going on. They submitted a draft agreement which the ministry is looking at. A committee is looking at it. Immediately it finishes, the government is meant to announce what it has accepted. Then suddenly, I heard them going on strike. We want a peaceful resolution. The Federal Government is ready to meet them on all issues they have raised and if there are so many meetings and the gap is not closing, then I think it’s not the fault of the government.

There is a solution to this. The negotiations are the solution and that is why I have said that I am surprised that ASUU has gone on strike,” Adamu said. On whether the issue could be resolved before the expiration of the warning strike, the minister said he couldn’t give a time frame for the resolution of the crisis since it involved other agencies. “But certainly we are going to reach an agreement very soon,” he assured.

Asked to explain why there were discriminatory cut-off marks for students seeking admission into the nation’s higher institutions, the minister said it was because of the widely accepted Federal Character principle which, he said, nobody could do anything about, at least for now.

Adamu also disclosed that the Council approved the sum of N4,965,986,573.89 for printing contract by National Examination Council (NECO) for the Senior School Certificate Examination. Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, in his briefing disclosed that the Council approved the sum of $2,810,574,064.92 “for the procurement of rolling stocks for the operation, maintenance and rolling stocks operational maintenance equipment for the new railway projects corridors in Ibadan to Kano standard gauge and Port Harcourt to Maiduguri narrow gauge rail lines to the tune of $2, 810, 574, 064.92 including 7.5 per cent tax.” Responding to the attack on rail workers in Kogi, Amaechi clarified that the attack did not occur at the Train Station but on their way out. While maintaining that the ministry’s responsibility stops within the station, the minister said he would investigate the level of armed security presence in the station in the next one week insisting that what he heard was that the workers were attacked on their way home.

Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, in his briefing said the Council approved the National Policy on Government, Secondary Level Domain. The policy, he explained, focused on mandating federal public institutions, ministries, departments, agencies, and all institutions to migrate from using generic domain in their websites and their emails to second level domain under government top-level domain. This made it compulsory for all official communications to be conducted through official e-mail which must not be generic but dot government dot ng. Pantami said the policy would help guarantee national security; provide national identity and give Nigeria global recognition; ensure transparency on official dealings and engender public confidence.

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