The strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities on the 13th of August has been condemned by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu on Wednesday, 16th August.
He expressed this after the Federal Executive Council meeting which holds regularly on Wednesday at Abuja while speaking to journalists. He stated that many of their complaints tabled before them were been addressed by government already.
The grievances of the ASUU stem from their 2009 agreement and 2013 MOU with the government which they claim has not been fulfilled. These includes; funding for revamping of public universities across the nation; matters regarding pension and registration of Nigerian universities pension management company; deserved academic allowances; university staff school amongst others.
Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu Credit: Punchng
The minister has stated that issues regarding allowances as stated by ASUU will be resolved and all that is owed them will be payed. He also mentioned that regarding the pension matter, the Nigerian Pension Commission will look into it and provide a permanent solution to it.
Mr Adamu also revealed that a court had given the union the go-ahead to initiate their staff school project.
Other complaints put forward by ASUU include their request to be put off the Treasury Single Account, TSA which the minister has stated to be a no-no. The TSA is a financial policy in use in many countries all over the world which happened to be implemented by the federal government in Nigeria in 2012 to direct all revenues/inflows from all agencies onwards to a single account at the Central Bank of Nigeria.