Amidst the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the minister of education, Adamu Adamu is said to be out of the country, The PUNCH reliably learnt.
A highly reliable source disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday in Abuja.
Though the source did not disclose the country the minister went to, nor the reason for the travel, it was revealed that the minister is expected to come back to the country on September 2, 2022.
Our correspondent had sought to inquire about the plans of the government as regards the lingering strike by ASUU.
But the source said, “The supervisory minister (Adamu Adamu) who is now in charge of negotiations is currently out of the country. He is expected to be back September 2. As of now, he is one with all the details”.
The spokesperson of the ministry of education, Ben Goong, did not immediately respond to inquiries by The PUNCH as regards the details of the minister’s travels.
The PUNCH reports that ASUU had on Monday, February 14, 2022, announced the commencement of an indefinite strike at the University of Lagos.
The union cited lots of reasons why it decided to go on strike. The union’s national president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, while briefing the press listed the demands of the union.
Some of the demands include the release of revitalization fund for universities; release of earned allowances for lecturers; release of the report of the visitation panels to universities; deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers; renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement among others.
In a bid to end the strike, the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige had led conciliatory meetings between the union and the government.
However, the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) few weeks ago mandated the minister of education, Adamu Adamu to take over negotiations.
Adamu had during a press briefing recently noted that the government would not pay the union for the months it did not work.
The union has however remained adamant.
