ASUU strike: Bear with us, FG tells students, parents

The Federal Government has expressed
admitted worry at the distortion in school
calendar as a result of the on going strike
by the Academic Staff Union of
Universities saying that it is committed to
the speedy resolution of the crisis for the
sake of Nigerian students.
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku
told state House correspondents at the
end of Wednesday’s Federal Executive
Council meeting that government was
committed to “serious negotiations” with
the university lecturers.
The Minister appealed to the students
and parents to bear with government and
show more understanding as efforts are
being made to resolve the contending
issues very soon.
“The federal government has been far
more worried than you think concerning
the strike in tertiary institutions, because
of the disruption of the school calendar
and so government is concerned and very
worried and since the onset of the strike
government has been negotiating with
ASUU through the Ministry of Labour and
Productivity and the Ministry of
Education.
“As at today we know that this
negotiations are going on and it is our
expectation that this strike will not get
more protracted and that an
understanding will be reached soon
enough to enable our students return
back to school. Government is very
worried and concerned every time the
school calendar is disrupted, it has its cost
to the nation, particularly the idle time
our children spend at home can lead to
alot of social difficulties.
“We don’t want school calendars to be
disrupted and a lot of series of discussions
have been going on and we believe we
should record some progress soon enough
for these schools to open and the
Minister of Labour and education will be
giving quarter briefing on the progress of
these negotiation and I know that it has
never cease.
“So we are appealing to our people
particularly parents and children of this
nation to bear with us, to show more
understanding and we pray that this type
of strike will not re-occur, because the
public school system suffers a lot of
damage with the perennial strikes. The
universities have been relatively stable
since the advent of this Administration.
The outraged strikes that we inherited we
have tried to resolve them, and if you
notice in the last two years there has not
been a lot of strikes until this unfortunate
one and I believe we will overcome it and
in the end both parties will appreciate
the need to keep the school calendar
stable for the progress of our country. So
government is working hard to ensure we
reach an agreement to resolve this
problem so that or schools can re-open”
he said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council
Wednesday approved a contract of N2.99
billion for the rehabilitation/construction
of the Calabar-Ugep section of the
Katsina-Ala/Ogoja/Ugep/Calabar road.
The earlier section of the road which is
already 80 per cent complete, was
awarded for N4.6 billion, thus bringing
the total contract sum for the entire road
to N7.5 billion
Minister of State for Works, Bashir
Yuguda, explained that the contractor,
Piccolo Brunelli, which handled the first
phase, was asked to continue with the
extension since it was already on site and
had done a very good job.
Yuguda recalled that “the first phase of
the project aimed at addressing the
heavily distressed sections of the road
while other sections not captured in the
original contract scope of works would be
addressed when funds became available.
“This is to ensure that government and
the public get the full benefits of the
investment made on the roads in terms of
improvement of the level of service” he
said.