Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has described how his administration ended the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) four-month strike in a single evening.
He revealed this on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 in Abuja.
He spoke at The Kukah Center’s commemoration of Matthew Hassan Kukah’s 70th birthday. Kukah is the Catholic bishop of the Sokoto Diocese.
Jonathan said, “The society we are managing is complex. Now, we are talking about ASUU strike. During my time too, ASUU had four months of strike. Different committees were meeting and meeting and nothing was working.
“I said how can our children stay out of school for four months. So I had to call a meeting of all the leadership of ASUU.
“I presided over the meeting with my vice president. The Attorney General was there. I said that that night we must solve the problem.
“The Attorney General was there, Secretary to the Government of the Federation was there. The ministers of education were there, the labor ministers were there the finance ministers. Everybody that has to do with it.
“And I thought that my being there would help us to do things quickly. But we spent the whole night before we finished on like 5:30 am before we concluded and the strike was called off, so there were issues,” Jonathan said.
Meanwhile, Peter Obi, a candidate for the Labour Party’s presidential nomination, has expressed concern over the protracted strike being waged by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Likewise, in a post sent on Wednesday, August 31, through his verified Twitter account, Obi expressed sadness over the impact that the country’s universities have been closed for the past six months on students and tertiary education.
Specifically, Obi said, “Our position is that the ASUU strike has lingered for far too long. It is unconscionable, worrisome, and unacceptable that FGN would allow such an industrial action to become almost intractable to the detriment of our students.
“It’s time for FGN to engage in collaborative negotiations with ASUU, and in good faith. -PO”
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Additionally, he lamented the ‘staggering corruption’ level in Nigeria; noting that that the country has been polarised along religious and ethnic lines.
“Nigeria is vastly polarized and wracked by deep divisions along religious, ethnic, and regional lines. There is a staggering level of corruption. Our universities have remained closed for six months.
“While our healthcare system remains almost moribund, power generation and distribution are also at an all-time low.”
Correspondingly, ASUU’s strike began on February 14 as a result of the government’s “failure” to accede to its demands.
