ASUU calls for sack of Education Minister

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which is on one-day warning strike has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to remove Mallam Adamu Adamu as Education minister.

The ASUU Chairman, Federal University of Technology, Minna branch, Comrade Ndanitsa Attahiru, who made the call said the request was based on the minister’s insensitivity and lack of commitment towards revitalizing the education sector.

He lamented that the education minister has continued to sabotage the efforts of stakeholders in the sector, and has failed to live up to his responsibilities as a go between the union and the President.

According to him, the only positive outcome from various meetings between the minister and the union, was a memo, long written by the minister to the President, on setting up a negotiating team to review the 2009 agreement entered into by the federal government and ASUU.

He said: “The government is supposed to have set up a negotiating team since 2015 but they keep on dodging the issue and nothing has been done.

“The minister is a stumbling block. He is our custodian; he is our intermediary between the union and Mr. President. Since this government came on board, ASUU has been trying to get access to Mr. President; the minister has not allowed that communication between government and our union.

“If he was very sensitive to the issues, I don’t think this strike will have been called for but he has shown that he Is insensitive to what kept him there so he should be removed.

“His removal will bring prosperity to education because Nigeria is bigger than individual, this country must move forward. If a minister is sitting down on his seat and sabotaging the efforts of education, I think he should be removed. He doesn’t need to be there.”

The ASUU chairman also noted that if government fails to respond positively within the stipulated period of warning strikes, the union would be forced to take a definite position.

“If nothing is done after one week, we will re-evaluate the situation on ground and move to the next option which is two weeks. If after two weeks nothing is done we will look at the situation and move to three weeks. If after three weeks nothing is done, we will go on full blown strike,” he said.