Former President Goodluck Jonathan has narrated how his administration resolved a four-month-old strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in one day.
Jonathan explained that he presided over a meeting of all the leadership of ASUU, ministers and everybody that had to do with the strike and insisted that they must arrive at a solution.
He stated this on Wednesday in Abuja at the 70th birthday celebration of Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, organised by The Kukah Centre.
University lecturers have been on strike for over six months since February over irreconcilable differences with the Federal Government.
Jonathan said, “The society we are managing is complex, 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, Second to the Government of the Federation was there, the ministers of education were there, the labor ministers were there the finance ministers, everybody that has to do with it.
“And I thought that my being there would help us to do things quickly. But we spent the whole night, before we finished on like 5:30am Before we concluded and the strike was called off, so there were issues.”
