ASUU: We’ve not heard from education minister

The National Executive Council of the Academic Staff of Union of Universities has failed to suspend the ongoing strike action, which has led to a shutdown of academic activities in public universities across the country.

The PUNCH had exclusively reported that the NEC would meet on August 1, 2022.

Sources within the NEC confirmed to our correspondent that the meeting, which ended in the early hours of Monday morning (August 1, 2022), sought to review the activities and progress recorded so far.

Our correspondent also learned that the union was yet to hear from the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, despite the promises made to the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), that the strike would be resolved.

“We reviewed the progress made so far, and to be honest, no progress was made. We have not heard from the minister at all. Nobody has reached out to us. I can confirm that calling off the strike is not even a matter of discussion,” a source within the NEC who did not want to be named noted this to our correspondent on Monday morning.

But the spokesperson of the ministry of education, Ben Goong, explained that the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, was working round the clock to ensure that the strike is called off.

“We can not speak on what we are doing before we make our submissions to the president. The minister is working round the clock to ensure that he carries out the directive of the president. When we get to the point of calling ASUU, we will,” Goong said.

The national president of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, could not be reached for further comments at the time of filing this report.

The PUNCH reports that the strike by the union entered its day 167 today (Monday).

ASUU has vowed not to suspend its strike if all its demands remained unmet.