As the pressure on the federal government to reopen tertiary institutions continues to grow, the minister of state for education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has assured students that universities across the nation will resume very soon.
Though the minister did not announce any specific date for resumption, he, however, urged all students to stop protesting and bear with the government a little bit more.
He explained that the rioting needs to stop as talks are in full negotiation with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The minister, speaking further, said the ministry is working to articulate the situation report of tertiary institutions from the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other regulatory bodies for evaluation.
This is coming a few days after the minister said that the federal government is making moves to end the ongoing ASUU strike before schools reopen. Nwajiuba during a programme that aired on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on Saturday, August 22, noted that many people want the federal government to resolve the strike before reopening schools.
Read Also: ASUU Asks FG To Close Schools Until 2021
These people believe some public schools which are not ASUU-prone want to take advantage of the strike to move ahead. The education minister said if this is allowed, it would destroy public schools.
Meanwhile, Anaedoonline.ng reported that Nigerian students took to streets to protest the reopening of all tertiary institutions in the country as the two-week ultimatum issued to the federal government by its leaders on reopening of schools elapsed.
The coalition of National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), National Association of University Students (NAUS), National Association of College of Education Students (NACES) staged a peaceful protest on Wednesday, August 19, despite the heavy threat from police and DSS.
Read More: ASUU STRIKE: WE WILL PAY NEW MINIMUM WAGE, FG PLEADS WITH ASUU
The students vowed to continue to shut down Abuja and all the 36 states. In a related development, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) has been presented before the federal government by ASUU as an alternative to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). UTAS was presented to the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, by the president of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, on Tuesday, August 18.
Moreover, during his briefing in Abuja, Ogunyemi announced that the union will not call off its ongoing strike since, according to him, the government is yet to honour the agreement made in 2019.
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