Minister of state for labour and employment Festus Keyamo has said that the Federal Government has done its best to address the lingering ASUU strike, urging parents to beg the union.
The strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has seen schools shut since February 14.
The government is yet to reach an agreement with the union since then.
Keyamo said on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Friday that parents and other stakeholders should appeal to ASUU to end the strike.
“Even before the strike began we called them to a meeting. It’s not like we left them to go on strike and we were sleeping and three months later we said ‘Can we start talking?'”
“The moment they declared (strike) we called them and said ‘Let us start talking’…You cannot allow a sector to hold you by the jugular and then blackmail you to go and borrow ₦1.2 trillion for overhead when our total income will be about ₦6.1 trillion,” he said.
“I will tell the parents and everybody ‘Go and beg ASUU’. Like the President said the other time ‘Those who know them should appeal to their sense of patriotism,'” Keyamo said.
The minister, who was recently appointed spokesman for his party’s 2023 presidential campaign council, added that he would kneel on air to beg ASUU if it would please the anchor, Seun Okinbaloye.
Pressed later if he could kneel and beg ASUU on air, Keyamo said, “I will do that when I see them.”
