Former President Goodluck Jonathan has stated that his administration resolved a four-month-old strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in one day.
He said 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.
REPORTERS AT LARGE report that the university lecturers have been on strike since February, citing an irreconcilable differences with the Federal Government.
“The society we are managing is complex. Now we are talking about the 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 ASUU leadership.
“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, the 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,” Jonathan said.
He noted that Bishop Kukah, despite his friendship with leaders, also bashes them when he feels they are not doing some things right, including himself.