Former President Goodluck Jonathan has narrated how his government resolved a lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in one night during his tenure in office, perhaps offering a useful piece of advice to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The ex-president, who spoke at a conference to mark the 70th birthday of the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Hassan Kukah in Abuja on Wednesday admitted that different committees set up by his administration to settle issues with ASUU failed.
He asserted that he held a meeting with the leadership of ASUU in a bid to end the union’s four-month-old strike at the time.
His advice comes as ASUU and the Federal Government have continued to lock horns in the last six months, a situation that has left millions of Nigerian varsity students hopeless, especially as the lecturers’ union has now declared an indefinite strike, while extending its industrial action recently.
He 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, Secretary 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,” Jonathan said.
