ASUU not alone in Nigeria, FG can't borrow to pay them - Festus Keyamo

Minister of State for Labor and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has said the government under President Muhammadu Buhari cannot borrow to pay for striking university professors.

Keyamu, who appeared on Channels TV on Friday, said members of the university's Academic Staff Union, ASUU, are not the only ones in the country, pointing out that other sectors also need funds .

According to the minister, the country cannot pay ASUU 1.2 trillion naira at the expense of other sectors of the economy.

He called on teachers to call off the six-month-old strike and return to the classroom as patriotic Nigerians.

He said, "You can't allow a sector of the economy to hold you by the jugular and then blackmail you into going and borrowing 1.2 trillion naira for overheads when our total income would be approximately N6,100 billion.

"As the president said the other time, those who know them appeal to their sense of patriotism.

“Let them go back to school. They are not the only ones in Nigeria. They are not the only ones feeding on the federal scholarship. The nation cannot stop because we want to meet the demands of the ASUU."

On February 14, ASUU closed public universities nationwide in protest at the federal government's failure to implement certain agreements reached by the two parties in previous years.

The union announced on Monday the extension of the industrial action for another four weeks to allow the government to find a solution to their demands.