The President, who regretted the protracted strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, described the action as unfortunate. He added that it had been politicised. He called on the university lecturers to consider the plight of their students and the sincerity of government and call off the strike. The President, however, said it was wrong for ASUU to go on strike because of the state of infrastructure in universities when it was his government that initiated inventory of infrastructure in the institutions and returned a verdict that something drastic must be done. He said, “ASUU strike is very unfortunate. There is no time a government has taken inventory of properties in schools but we set up a technical team that visited all universities. When the report was presented, I said it must be presented to all governors during NEC. “We said things must change but it can’t be done overnight. For us to do that inventory shows that we are committed. For ASUU to go on strike for infrastructure is not fair. We are doing inventory for polytechnics and colleges of education too and they are not being done for fun. “We expect ASUU to work with us. It is unfortunate that the strike lasts this long because we have witnessed strikes before and most of them are called off when government don’t even do up to what we have done. “Politics have fallen into so many things. We may be seeing something different.” Jonathan faulted those who have been describing the country as broke or bankrupt, saying that also smark of unhealthy politics. “People play politics with serious issues. How can you describe the country as bankrupt? What parameters did they use? Anybody that says Nigeria is broke is playing politics and talking out of ignorance,” he declared. On the power sector, Jonathan promised that before the end of the first quarter of next year, power would be stable in the country. He also promised that his administration was building security architecture to tackle oil theft. While admitting that corruption was prevalence in the country, Jonathan however said the menace was not the nation’s number one problem. He said, “We did an in-house investigation and we are still doing it now. I am not saying there is no corruption in the oil sector but the way people are looking at it may not be the real thing. Recently, we have asked some auditors to look at the books again.”
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:17:17 +0000
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