ABUJA— THE Federal Government
and the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, will meet
today on the ongoing strike
embarked upon by university
lecturers over the non-
implementation of the 2009 FG/
ASUU agreement.
This came against the backdrop of
Minister of Labour and
Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu’s
denial of a newspaper report that
the Federal Government
agreement with ASUU could not
work.
The minister said he never made
such a statement and that he only
appealed to the union to return
to the classrooms while
negotiations continued.
Last week, the two opposing sides
had met with the Senate and
House of Representatives Joint
Committee on Education to find a
solution to the crisis, so students
could go back to school, but the
meeting ended in deadlock and
the two groups were told to go
back and review their positions to
come back on a latter date.
But the Minister of Education,
Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’I, while
fielding questions from newsmen,
yesterday, disclosed that the
Federal Government had no other
option than to meet with the
union to resolve the crisis, so
students can return to school.
Prof. Rufa’I said: “Government
has no option but to make efforts
to resolve ASUU crisis. Mr.
President is concerned, everybody
is concerned, definitely, efforts
will have to be made to have
students back in classrooms.
“So we are pleading with our
colleagues in ASUU to call off the
strike but we are meeting with
them, we are meeting tomorrow
(today).
President of Academic Staff Union
of Universities, ASUU, Dr. Nasir
Fagge, has said Nigeria’s economy
had been taken over by Chinese
as leaders in Nigeria have refused
to provide quality education to
the people, while the Chinese
government trained its people in
all sectors with the necessary
facilities.
Dr. Fagge in an interview with
Vanguard said Nigeria’s economy
will continue to dwindle except
leaders of the country provided
universities with adequate
facilities to give qualitative
education to the youths.
He said: “The thing about it is
that, if other countries are
investing about 28-30 per cent of
their annual budget in education,
typically Ghana, even this year,
Ghana has committed 28 per cent
of its total budget to education, if
they can do it, why not Nigeria.
“Is it because we are under the
dictates of IMF and World Bank,
don’t we want to do what is right,
must our children continue to go
to Ghanaian university for
education, must our people be
leaving our country, be brain-
drained to other countries to go
and develop their economies,
must we continue this way”?
“Even now, what is happening is
that the Chinese have taken over
our economy simply because they
have trained their people, they
have educated their people and
their people can compete any
where in the World that is why
our President is going to China to
go and sign MoU (Memorandum
of Understanding).
“Why cant we do the same, why
cant we train our people and give
them quality education so that we
will also be exporting them to go
and carry out assignments in
other countries and then bring
foreign exchange for our country
and then we will not need to be
importing people to come and do
some sundry projects in our
country.
“Most of the key contracts now
are being forwarded to Chinese
companies; all our companies are
down simply because we have not
paid high premium to our
education sector that is what we
are saying. Are we happy with
what we are producing as
graduates? We are not that is
what we are crying out for.
“Let people understand that it is
the pride of an intellectual to
produce a well rounded
intellectual who is even better
than himself, but that is not what
we are having. We are having
people because we don’t have the
facilities to give them state of-
the-art training and we are crying
out and people are telling us all
sorts of things.”
ASUU president, who expressed
optimism that the agreement the
union entered into with the
federal government would be
implemented, also decried the
moving in droves of Nigerian
students to Ghana, since he
country paid more attention to
the education sector.
“This thing that they are saying
agreement cannot be
implemented, we have heard it
before. Prof. Ben Nwabueze was
always in the media when he was
the Minister of Education saying
that it was an agreement of
imperfect obligation,” he said. source: Vanguard newspaper

ok noted! Waiting for the outcome of the meeting and the type of fruit it will yield as promised yesterday

lets wait for the good news then

Hmmmmmmn! Its now unto God, Nigeria we so need God to intervene.

We'll still be here, waiting for the results.

Ω̴̩ȃ same new story we go stil hea..... Oya Ω̴̩ȃ mak we see Ω̴̩ȃ..

If ASUU collect that money government will really presurise them to see how they will use the money.Our educational system is in the state of quagmire and doldrums,Bleep ASUU, Bleep government,Bleep our leaders,Bleep this country.Off to work,anytime der decide to call off am ok.

let dem do and resolve dis strike o.am tired of staying at home.ASUU plz and fg plz.hopefully we will have a harvest of fruits

Realy maximizing d strike here, abeg make we neva resume oh☺☻

What's my business with ASUU strike,by monday i will be travelling to all d south south states to distribute my company's things and get paid.strike or no strike I don't care! We have got useless learders.