ASUU to FG: Students support us — and they’re planning to sue education minister

Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says students are already consulting lawyers in order to sue the federal government and Adamu Adamu, minister of education.

On Thursday, Adamu said students affected by the strike of ASUU should sue the union.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14 to protest the non-implementation of its demands by the federal government.

On August 1, the union announced another one-month extension of the action “to give the government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues”.

Reacting to the minister’s statement on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Friday, Osodeke said students know that the problem is with the government and not the union.

“You need to read the response by the president of NANS, Comrade Asefon. He said ASUU is not their problem that their problem is the government and if they must sue anybody, they are actually doing that, they are consulting lawyers, they are going to sue the minister of education and the federal government for forcing ASUU who is an employee of the system and fighting for their (students) interest,” he said.

The president of ASUU said the issues the union raised can be resolved in a day if the government is committed to the education of the youths.

“What we are saying is that we can resolve this issue within one day as Jonathan did in 2013,” he said.

“When it got to this stage in 2013, Jonathan summoned everybody to hear the truth. He heard the truth and we resolved the issue within one night.

“That can be done at this level either by a committee or people that are patriotic, not these ministers that already have bias. We can resolve this issue in one day and our children will go back to school.”