- Safiu Kehinde
President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Chris Piwuna, on Monday told Minister of Education Dr. Tunji Alausa to drop the threat strategy his ministry is allegedly employing to force lecturers back to classrooms.
NPO Reported that the Alausa had in a joint statement issued alongside the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Sai’d Ahmad, on Sunday, urged ASUU to reconsider its decision to embark on an industrial strike as it warned of invoking the no work, no pay principle entrenched in the Nigerian Labour Law.
Alausa would further accuse ASUU of frustrating all their negotiation efforts while claiming that the FG had attended to all issues raised by the union
Reacting in an exclusive interview with the NPO Reports shortly after Alausa appeared on a live television interview Monday morning, Piwuna said the minister’s media statements and his ministry’s statements have established a pattern of threat against the university teachers.
The ASUU President talked down the Minister’s threat, urging him to drop the idea.
“If he wants to continue to threaten, he can continue to threaten and waste his time.
“We are certainly not going to respond to threat. He can’t threaten us.
“We want that to be clear to the Honourable Minister of Education.
“He should just drop that idea because it cannot take him anywhere.
The release yesterday by the Ministry of Education was clearly to threaten the union and its members.” Prof Piwuna said in a telephone interview.
On the Alausa’s allegations and claims during his interview on Channels TV, the ASUU President maintained that the union would respond soon after
“As to what he said this morning, I haven’t read it. I would like to have a look at it and state our position.” He said.