ASUU STRIKE: NANS to meet Nigerian govt over Keyamo’s ‘no money’ comment

A new meeting between the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the Ministers of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, and his education counterpart, Malam Adamu Adamu, is to be scheduled in response to rumours that the Federal Government lacks the resources to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which is currently on strike.

Comrade Odiahi Thomas Ikhine, NANS Vice President (Special Duties), stated at a news conference on Monday in Abuja that the students were dissatisfied with remarks attributed to Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, that the government lacked the resources to meet ASUU’s demands.

The government reportedly couldn’t afford the N1.2 trillion demands of the Union as put forth by the Emeritus Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee on the revision of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, thus Keyamo reportedly requested parents to implore ASUU to end the strike.

Ikhine stated that the NANS leadership would meet with Adamu and Ngige to get a better understanding of the circumstance after President Buhari ordered an end to the strike within two weeks.

He further emphasized that NANS did not demand the dismissal of Governor Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Read also: QuickRead: Another extension of ASUU strike. Four other stories we tracked and why they matter

He promised that the students would not give up on getting thing done the proper way.

“On the issue of ASUU strike, we as an organisation have been doing our best. We have been able to pressure the government and just recently the NLC called for a protest and we joined them. As it is, we are not relenting.

“We, therefore, wish to dissociate ourselves and the name of our organization from the unpatriotic call for the sack of the CBN governor. It is our belief that the CBN governor needed to be given moral support,” Ikhine explained.

He added, “We call on security agencies to do their best in bringing impostors who go about heating polity and engaging in actions capable of affecting national security and stability to book, especially at this time of fragile national security experience.”

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