Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, receiving a delegation of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund in Abakaliki, led by Dr. Ben Akabueze, revealed his alliance the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo SAN, declaring that there is no way the federal government can borrow N1.1 trillion for the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and end the national strike.
Governor Umahi, Chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum, however, emphasized the need for both ASUU and federal government negotiators to show understanding and have a midpoint agreement to end the prolonged strike.
Governor Umahi had said: “There is no way Nigeria will go and borrow N1.1 trillion to meet ASUU’s demand, it’s quite unreasonable. Are their demands genuine? Yes. But we can start little by little.
“There must be a commitment on the side of both parties that look, ‘ASUU is not asking for this to take to their houses’ so to say. It’s asking for it for our children, to better the infrastructure, to better the lecturers and the students. Yes, but we can start with a fraction of that and then have a programme that will run on the platform of sincerity to address all the lots.
“So, it is important for ASUU to show some understanding and for those who are negotiating on the side of government to also show some understanding.
“Let’s meet ourselves halfway and then open the schools to save the fate of our children.”
Umahi noted that there is poor maintenance culture in public institutions, saying that until the trend is reversed, infrastructures in public institutions will continue to go bad.
The governor stated: “But let me also say that most of the time, our people have a low appetite for maintenance of public works.
“No matter how much you deploy to these universities, unless the users and the industry regulators begin to treat public infrastructure as their own in the various universities, it will continue to go bad.”