Minister of State for Labour and Employment Festus Keyamo, SAN, has appealed to parents and all men of goodwill to help beg the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to sheath their sword and return to classes.
Keyamo who featured on Channels Television programme, Politics Today, anchored by Seun Okinbaloye said the Federal Government has done its best, urging Parents to “beg ASUU”
He even offered to “knee down on the television” to appeal to the university teachers, but when prodded by Okinbaloye, he buckled.
Recall that ASUU after its National Executive Council Meeting on August 1, 2022, had extended the strike action which entered its fifth month on July 14, by another four weeks.
But Keyamo, a human rights advocate, politician and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress said there is no way the Federal Government could raise the N1.2 trillion wage bill which the lecturers were demanding.
He said just like the President advised recently, ASUU leadership could call off the strike action which is taking so much toll on the parents and especially students, while negotiation regarding the gray areas continue.
According to him, the ASUU’s grievances can be divided into two: an increment which saw them push a wage bill of over N450 billion by another N560 billion, as well as the rejection of the IPPS payment platform developed by the Federal Government, for another, UTASS, which failed the stress test of the nation’s technology agency NITDA.
He said while the nation’s projected revenue for 2023 stood at N6.1 trillion, ASUU’s wage demand alone is about N1.2trillion yearly, which simply is impracticable to the government.
He said: “Should we go and borrow to pay N1.2 trillion yearly? 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.
“Like the President said the other time, those who know them, should appeal to their sense of patriotism. Let them go back to classes. They are not the only ones 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.”
He said it behooves on parents to beg ASUU to be realistic as the way out of the crises, arguing that the Federal Government would not go borrowing to finance recurrent expenditure of a union, knowing that other unions within the university system are just waiting in the wings to begin their own demand, once government accedes to ASUU.
“We have NASU, who have already told the Federal Government that they should not be forced into the UTASS system if it is eventually accepted by the Federal Government, while Polytechnic and College of Education teachers, also have their grievances.
He said the federal government had been engaging the teachers long before they commenced their strike action, adding that the ASUU leadership need to shift position and come down to a realistic level in the overall interest of all Nigerians and the nation’s educational system.