ABUJA — The Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President, Mallam Garba Shehu has called on parents to join the federal government in begging the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to end its ongoing strike.
ASUU had on February 14 declared a one-month warning strike to protest the non-implementation of its demands—the replacement of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for the payment of its members’ salaries and other entitlements—by the federal government.
On March 14, the union extended the industrial action by eight weeks, and at the expiration of the eight weeks, the union further extended the strike by another 12 weeks.
Again, on August 1, the union announced another four-week extension “to give government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues”.
Reacting to the latest prolongation, Shehu, who spoke on the sidelines of the 11th graduation ceremony of Glisten International Academy, Abuja on Saturday, said the announcement “came like a bolt in the sky, adding that “the strike is unnecessarily extended.”
He, therefore, advised parents whose children are affected by the proctracted strike action to join hands with the government in pleading with ASUU to return to the classroom.
“It came like a bolt in the sky. We are shocked because it came at a time the president is giving full commitment to resolving the ASUU strike and having the students and teachers back in the school,” the presidential spokesperson said.
“The extension, I believe, should not have been done because the spirit in which the government now is trying to resolve the problems of ASUU is such that there should also be a benefit of the doubt in favour of the government on the part of ASUU.
“The strike is unnecessarily extended and this should not have been the case. I want to advise parents to join the government in begging ASUU to end this strike, as the government is doing its part and parents are worried, and they should start talking to ASUU.”
Shehu’s comments came hours after Festus Keyamo (SAN), the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, went on-air and made similar remarks.
Keyamo, who was a guest on Politics Today, a Channels TV programme, on Friday night asked parents beg the academic union to end the strike.
“I will tell the parents, everybody to go and beg ASUU like the President said the other time, those who know them should appeal to their sense of patriotism. The nation can not ground to a halt because we want to take care of the demands of ASUU,” he had said.
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