The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, the registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede; Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Rasheed; Emeritus Professors Peter Okebukola and Nimi-Briggs; as well as all vice-chancellors and pro-chancellors of federal universities are about now holding closed-door meeting over the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
At the kickoff of the meeting, Adamu said, “I will like to ask respectfully that the gentlemen of the press excuse us so that we can start our deliberations.”
He lamented the failure of ASUU to call off its strike despite interventions by the government.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14, 2022.
Speaking on the strike, the minister said he had been in a dark period of personal anguish and internal turmoil following the lingering strike.
According to him, “For me, the past two weeks have been a very dark period of personal anguish and internal turmoil. I used to deceive myself that in a climate of frankness, and with mutual goodwill, it will fall to my lot to bring an end to the incessant strikes in the education sector. This has not proved possible, or, at least, not as easy, quickly and straightforward, as I used to think.”
He told the meeting that he did not summon them to share his anguish but to share with them the details of what the government had done and what remains to be done.
