President Buhari on Tuesday, December 8, said it is amazing that members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have stayed out of the classrooms for so long and have also agreed not to call off the lingering strike.
The academic union embarked on strike in March 2020 over demands for more funding for public universities and renegotiation of the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement amongst other demands. The union is still on strike.
The President expressed displeasure at this development during his meeting with the 36 state governors in the presidential villa on Tuesday.
A statement released by his media aide, Garba Shehu, after the meeting, quoted the President as saying
”Lecturers had not taken into consideration the larger challenges facing the country.
Government conceded something. The problem is that they refused to look at the problem of the whole country.
The Minister of Labour is working hard at it. It is amazing how ASUU will stay out of classrooms for so long. There’s a need for our elites to understand the challenges facing the country.”