Meeting ASUU’s demands will ground other sectors – Maku

Nigerian students may have to stay at home longer as there is strong indication that the government is not prepared to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, said should government resolve to meet ASUU’s demands, then all other sectors would be grounded.
Maku argued that the Federal Government has invested a lot money in the development of tertiary education, thus appealing to the striking lecturers to consider the interest of the nation and go back to work.
He said government would have spent more money on education than it is presently doing if not for the security challenges confronting the nation, which is gulping huge sums of money.
Maku said: “If we say every particular problem we face in this countr,y we will not work until it is resolved, then I’m sure there is no sector that will work.
“If we all insist that every sector problem must be completely solved, we will down tools, we will not work, then the country will stop working.
“We are partners with ASUU.
“We are friends.
“They are our patriots and we understand the critical role that the universities teachers are doing to create a new society that we are hoping to have.
“But at the same time, this is a reality question that we need to look at and we have to put the nation first.
“I know all of us desire more from the system but the truth is that there are limitations and from the limitations we have, we believe that ASUU really needs to do a rethink and ensure that we reopen our universities because really we are feeling the pain of our children being at home and this indeed is completely avoidable.”