Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by Vice
President Namadi Sambo, on Wednesday appealed to members of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) to end their industrial action and return to work.
This is
as 33 Heads of State have indicated interest in attending a conference on
HIV/AIDS, which will hold in Abuja next week.
FEC
deliberated on the strike and the general overview of the education sector and
expressed worry about the effect of lecturers’ resort to strike and its effect
on the polity.
Briefing
newsmen on the outcome of the meeting, Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, said
FEC resolved to establish negotiations with the striking lecturers at the
cabinet level towards finding a lasting solution.
He said
FEC called on ASUU to reconsider the usual resort to downing of tools when it
has grievances against government, and urged the union to start considering
other means of extracting its demands from government.
Moro said
the Federal Government was not unmindful of the challenges in the education sector,
which has seen students seeking admission in foreign educational institutions,
including those in neighbouring Benin Republic.
Government
was therefore, determined to curb the trend which it considers a waste of
national assets and foreign exchange. Minister of State for Finance, Yerima
Ngama, refuted accusations by the House of Representatives that the ministry
had been delaying release of funds for the power sector, hence, the continued
inadequate and unsatisfactory electricity supply across the country.
He said
the ministry has instead been doing a lot to aid the Ministry of Power
actualise its mandate of providing adequate electricity supply to Nigerians.
He cited
the oversubscribed $1billion bond floated by the federal government to fund
electricity infrastructure in the country, as well as release of appropriate
funds for power sector reforms.
Ngama
stressed that the “Ministry of Power has enjoyed tremendous release of funds”
from the Finance Ministry and that Nigerians should be patient with government
as it gradually rolls out the power projects that will guarantee up to 18 hours
of electricity to consumers by 2014 as promised.
He also
noted that the recent protest by staff of Ministry of Environment over unpaid
salaries was considered by FEC, which directed relevant authorities to
fast-track arrangements towards having the issue resolved as soon as possible.
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