The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, on Monday, said resources were not enough to meet all the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities at once.
This is as the minister faulted claims of the union that the Federal Government was blackmailing it.
The PUNCH had reported that ASUU had given the Federal Government a three-week ultimatum on November 15, 2021 to honour the agreement it signed with the union, which led to the suspension of the strike by university lecturers in December 2020.
Some of the demands are the payment of earned allowances, payment of revitalisation funds to universities, creation of visitation panels and implementation of the University Transparency Accountability Solution instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System for the payment of workers in the ivory towers, among others.
The minister told one of our correspondents on Monday that the Federal Government did not have enough resources to meet all the union’s demands at once.
He said, “We cannot possibly be blackmailing them; we tried to explain to them that we will fulfil the agreements when we have the resources. Agreements have been signed and they are meant to be fulfilled.
“But we do not have all the resources to meet all the demands at once. The thing is that we all are working together – ASUU and the Federal Government. The goal is to produce graduates, who will serve Nigeria, and to make sure that the academic calendar is running smoothly.
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