The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has said the federal government has no money to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Okay.ng recalls that the Union had embarked on a four-week warning strike on 14th February 2022. It had since been carried over owing to failure of the FG and the Union to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement.
He revealed this while speaking on Channels TV’s “Politics Today” program.
Mr Keyamo asked parents to beg ASUU members to return to classes because the federal government would not borrow money to meet the demands of the lecturers.
“The moment they went on strike, we intervened, what is the manner again beyond that ? Even before the strike began, we called them to a meeting, what manner is more than that? It’s not like we left them to go on strike first and we were sleeping, as the talk started, they still went on strike.
“You can not allow one sector of the economy to hold you down and then blackmail you to go and borrow N1.2 trillion and our total income is around N6.1 trillion and we have roads to build, health centres and other sectors to take care of.
“I will tell the parents, everybody to go and beg ASUU like the President said the other time, those who know them should appeal to their sense of patriotism. The nation can not ground to a halt because we want to take care of the demands of ASUU”.
