Former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, has recalled how he ended a four-month-old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, in a single night.
Jonathan disclosed this in Abuja during the 70th birthday celebration of the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Kukah, put together by Kukah Centre.
According to the former president, it required his intervention and determination to resolve the contending issues with the university lecturers.
He stated that he had to get involved after several committees set up to resolve the issues failed to achieve any result.
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He said, “Now we are talking about ASUU strike, during my time too, ASUU had four months of strike, different committees were meeting and meeting and nothing was working. I said how can our children stay out of school for four months. So I had to call a meeting of all the leadership of ASUU.
“I presided over the meeting with my vice president, the Attorney General was there, I said that that night we must solve the problem. The Attorney General was there, Secretary to the Government of the Federation was there, the Ministers of Education were there, the Labour and Finance Ministers, everybody that has to do with it were there.
“And I thought that my being there would help us to do things quickly. But we spent the whole night. It was 5:30 am before we concluded and the strike was called off, ” Jonathan said.
Source: Thisday