By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has said that a previous administration should be held accountable for the continous strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities because it signed an agreement it couldn’t keep.
Adamu who did not mention the administration he was referring to, said that that government shouldn’t have entered into agreement to pay ASUU N1.3trilion when it knew it couldn’t pay it.
He was answering a question he was asked by a Corp Member on the persistent ASUU strike, at a Town Hall meeting on security issues tagged: Engaging the Youth and Communities at the Multi-Purpose Indoor Sports Hall Complex Bauchi on Monday which was organized by the State government at the instance of the federal government.
Adamu said the insolvable problem that has resulted to incessant strikes by ASUU is an agreement on N1.3 trillion signed by a previous government.
“A government in this country went and sat down with ASUU and agreed on some conditions that it would pay universities N1.3 trillion.”
“I do believe that while they were signing that agreement, they knew that it is not possible for them to implement it. There is just no where N1.3trn will come out from.
“I think the basic problem between the ASUU side and the government side has been deciding on what to do about this N1.3 trillion. If a government appends its signature to an agreement, it is an agreement,” the Education Minister said.
He said that the government was unhappy that the strike was still ongoing however, promising that an agreement will soon be reached by the government and ASUU.
He said: “We are not happy that our campuses are closed, we are not happy that happy that the calendar of schools have been disrupted. But the fault is the government that signed to do what it knew it could not do.
“But I assure you that we are on verge of reaching an agreement and very, very soon we will reach an agreement with them,” he assured.
Also responding to a question raised by a teacher, Adamu said the President has pledged to be paying anyone who intends to be trained as a teacher immediately after secondary school.
“There is a pension scheme exclusively for teachers. All teachers’ children will be taught free in school. They won’t pay a single Kobo in the course of training their children.
“The government also approved a special allowances for rural postings, like hardship allowance. There is also preferential to housing scheme for teachers,” he stated.
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