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Buhari begs ASUU, Labour not to hinder govt efforts with strikes

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President Muhammadu Buhari has boasted that his administration in three-and-a-half years has improved Nigeria tremendously in terms of infrastructure and others.

He however pleaded with various labour unions in the country to try and appreciate his government’s efforts.

According to him, the labour unions should try and reduce their agitations in order to allow his administration concentrate more on fixing damaged infrastructure.

Buhari stated this when he addressed the executive committee of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the State House in Abuja.

He said in a tweet on his Twitter handle, “In three-and-a-half years, we have improved tremendously on what we met. We are trying to do infrastructure.

“No matter which part of the country you come from, you will see the efforts we are making in terms of roads; we are trying to fix rails, we are trying to do power, through the use of gas and solar. If you note what we have done in these three-and-a-half years, you will not regret voting this administration into power.”

He specifically urged the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to appreciate the efforts of his administration at fixing collapsed infrastructure, and assured that he was going to talk to ASUU to call off its ongoing strike “so that they don’t encroach on your efforts to qualify (graduate) in time.”

In response to ASUU’s insistence that the government should meet its financial demands, the President explained to the delegates of the student union that he had thrown open the income and expenditure of the government in the 2019 budget for all to see.

While he assured labour unions that he meant well for Nigeria by focusing more on rebuilding collapsed infrastructure for now, Buhari added, “There is a tendency for you to think that you can do better than anybody, but it is very good for you to know the facts that leadership entails.”

Earlier, the president of NANS, Danielson Bamidele-Akpan, applauded Buhari’s government in tackling insurgency in the North-East and pleaded with the administration to ensure an urgent end to the ongoing strike by ASUU.

Meanwhile, a Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) National Executive Committee member, Comrade Issa Aremu, has called on Buhari to try to ensure the proposed nationwide protest fixed for January 8, 2019 by the workers never take place.

READ ALSO: Buhari has already violated the peace accord– Timi Frank

He advised Buhari to avert the strike by sending the N30,000 minimum wage bill to the National Assembly for consideration.

Aremu stated this on Thursday in Ilorin when he hosted market men and women for the New Year.

He also asked Senate President Bukola Saraki, to emulate his father, Dr Olusola Saraki, by ensuring the speedy passage of the bill.

“The strike is preventable if the President acts fast. I know his love for the poor, especially the market women. He should promptly send the executive bill to the National Assembly,” he said.

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