Trillions Wasted on COVID-19 could have Resolved ASUU Strike – Yahaya Bello
By Ozumi Abdul
Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has accused the Federal Government of misplacing it’s priorities in wasting trillions of naira on COVID-19 management and allowing the crisis in the education sector to fester.
The governor faulted ministers representing the Federal Government in the negotiation with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), saying they are not representing President Muhammadu Buhari properly.
Governor Bello stated this during his appearance on Channels TV ‘Sunrise Daily’ on Friday.
Recall that ASUU embarked on a warning strike on February 14, while subsequently extending the strike several times in the past six months.
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Other associations such as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) later followed suit, shutting down public universities nationwide.
Reacting to the ongoing strike, Bello said the humongous money spent on Covid 19 in 2020 would have been easily channeled towards settling the striking university lecturers, maintaining that there was no COVID-19 in the first place, which could have warranted spending such expenditure.
“I don’t think they [ministers] are representing Mr President well. This is a man that cares so much about education, and even children during that lockdown were being fed at home.
“Those who Mr President entrusted to handle this protracted issue are not doing justice to it,” the former presidential aspirant said.
He added that the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) was making effort to bring the six-month-long strike to an end.
