Reopening: ASUU tells education minister to resign and go to farm

Reopening: ASUU tells education minister to resign and go to farm

- Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has been told by ASUU to resign and face farming

- The junior education minister was issued the warning as rows continue over the adoption of IPPIS

- ASUU described as ignorant and naive the statement credited to Nwajiuba where he told the striking varsity lecturers to switch profession

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on the minister of state for education, Hon Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba's resignation.

The call was made on Tuesday, October 6, by the lecturers' body on the heels of a statement credited to the junior minister in which he told the striking ASUU members to go to farm if they do not want to agree with terms of their employer.

Legit.ng understands that in what began as another face-off over the controversial Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPIS), Nwajiuba while speaking on a TV programme had told to striking lecturers to go to farm.

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Reopening: ASUU tells education minister to resign and farm
ASUU tells education minister Nwajiuba to resign and farm. Credit: ThisDay.
Source: UGC

The minister was reported to have insisted that ASUU cannot dictate how they should be paid to the federal government.

But in a swift response, ASUU chairman, University of Ibadan chapter, Prof Ayo Akinwole, described the minister's statement as a clear expression of ignorance.

The university don chided the minister for showing naivety and lack of empathy on the scope and depth of education, urging him to resign and take farming as an alternative service to the nation.

While challenging the minister, Akinwole stated that it is unfair that the university lecturers are not being paid their allowances since 2013.

In his words:

"If the Minister of State for Education is interested in farming, he should resign his appointment and stop displaying his cluelessness of the problems in the education sector. We are on a just fight to ensure that those in public offices become responsive and responsible to the masses they swore to serve. They must fund public education."

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Akinwole stressed that the universities can only reopen if the federal government consider the demand of the lecturers.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that ASUU reacted to the federal government's directives for the full reopening of all schools in Nigeria including tertiary institutions and unity colleges.

The body's president, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, on Friday, October 2, said institutions cannot reopen because ASUU is still on strike.

Ogunyemi, who noted that the federal government has the right to reopen, however, stated that lecturers will continue to withhold their service.

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Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Rahaman Abiola avatar

Rahaman Abiola (Editor-in-Chief) Rahaman Abiola is an award-winning journalist and Editor-in-Chief with over 8-year experience. He holds a degree in English & Literature from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria (2015). He's a recipient of the Mile Media Award, Kwame Karikari Fellowship. His works have appeared in Punch, The Nation, Tribune, The Cable, Sahara Reporters and others. rahaman.abiola@corp.legit.ng