Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its strike.
She made the plea on Tuesday while speaking with journalists after a Workshop on World Bank Initiated Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) Project in Abuja, same day the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) called off its strike action and urged its members to return to work.
“The Federal Government is still pleading with the ASUU to do all it can to make our students return to classes. We are talking, and we will continue to talk,” she said.
She explained that the government was meeting with all stakeholders to resolve the crisis, and expressed confidence that the strike would soon be called off, as government is also making efforts to restructure the university system, a major demand by the lecturers.
Concerning the ACE project, the minister listed some of its benefits. “You are here today to be updated on the ACE project and also to be guided on the procedures involved in the selection process and discuss focal areas for proposal submission.
“You are also here to discuss the criteria for participation and other necessary information that will help equip your institutions to be successful in the competitive process.”
She commended organisers of the workshop, saying it came at a time when the Federal Government was on the verge of commissioning the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NREN).
She disclosed that the Federal Government and other stakeholders had invested heavily into the Network towards addressing some of the IT challenges of the Nigeria University System (NUS) in such areas as learning, teaching and research.
She said with the resources at the disposal of the NUS, at this time, “I challenge you to come up with good proposals that would ensure that you emerge as Centres of Excellence in Africa.”
Also, Executive Secretary (ES) of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Julius Okojie, pleaded with ASUU to come up with possible ways to assist the government.
“In the last three years, the Federal Government has provided every university with N3bn annually to revamp the university structure,” he said. “Let them mop up what they have because we may in fact have excess facility in the university system.”
Okojie said the Federal Government was fighting for the universities to have credible staff and student audit to assist in the sector’s development planning, adding that the government was also insisting that the universities should give account of the funds that they have been provided with.
