The federal government has described the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as ridiculous and unreasonable.
The union had stated that it would only end the strike action after its home-grown University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) has passed the federal government’s integrity test.
Reacting to the ASUU’s stance, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, said ASUU’s demand is ridiculous because varsity lecturers cannot determine how they should be paid by their employers which is the federal government.
“I don’t know whether you know how many groups, organisations and associations receiving a salary from the federal account. So, if everybody is doing their own platform, imagine how many payment platforms government will have to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, ASUU has raised an alarm over what the body termed as a deliberate attempt to strangulate public education in Nigeria.
Speaking during a Town and Gown meeting at the African Hall in the University of Ilorin, Kwara state, ASUU president Ogunyemi said the lecturers’ body is being neglected by the federal government because “there were plans to make education inaccessible to the poor.”