By Uzair Adam Imam
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, suddenly turned against the union the moment he was appointed a minister.
The union said the education minister supported ASUU’s agitations, including their industrial actions, before he was appointed to this position.
Prof Lawan Abubakar, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Bauchi Zone, disclosed this on Friday at the University of Jos, Plateau State.
Abubakar decried the way Adamu has been misleading other ministers and the public about the union’s action.
He also called on Nigerians to hold Adamu and the Federal Government responsible for the incessant strike.
The Chairman quoted Adamu to have said in 2013, “This nation owes a debt of gratitude to ASUU, and the strike should not be called off until the government accepts to do and does what is required.
“So, instead of hectoring ASUU to call off the strike, the nation should be praying for more of its kind in other sectors of the economy.”
The professor went on to say Adamu had also said that whatever he wrote on ASUU, he had totally believed in it, even now that he is a minister.
He said, “You may recall that when asked to make his comments on ASUU’s submission to President Buhari on Tuesday, the 9th of January, 2020, Adamu Adamu said he totally agreed with what ASUU presented, upon which note President Buhari handed him ASUU’s document and directed him to come up with a proposal for an amicable solution.
“For the same Adamu Adamu to now lead his colleagues, the other ministers, to misrepresent facts and mislead the good people of Nigeria against ASUU is rather unfortunate.
“It is the highest level of unpatriotic disservice a minister would do to his nation, particularly in a sector like education which is the backbone of the development of any country.
“If this is the way to end the ASUU strike, ASUU-Bauchi Zone is taking exception to it and assuring Adamu Adamu that he is wrong; he has rather succeeded in undermining the future of Nigerian youths and Nigeria. If it would take him six (6) months to only come up with this deceit as a solution to the strike, we then have the right to ask whether he really was serious with education or stage-managing it.
“It has now come to bear that the minister had all along been deceiving everybody since 2017, as far as ASUU’s agitations in the tenure of this government are concerned.
“We want the general public to know that the Federal Government through Adamu Adamu did NOT approach ASUU with any reasonable and acceptable solutions to the issues in the contention that led to the current strike,” he stated.
