‘FG reached agreement with ASUU under duress’

The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, on Thursday said most of the agreements reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities were under duress.

Echono stated this during a retreat organised by the governing council of the University of Abuja.

ASUU and the Federal Government have constantly been engaged in tussles over the latter’s failure to meet some of the demands put forward by ASUU.

Echono said, “I have heard so much about the fact that the government has failed to honour the agreements with ASUU. I have a different view about that because most of these agreements are imperfect.

“If somebody comes to my house and puts a gun to my head, I might agree to everything because those agreements are signed under duress. If you want to introduce obligations or responsibilities on their part, they will insist you cannot.”

Meanwhile sources on Thursday told our correspondent that ASUU would decide whether to go on strike or not following the end of its scheduled zonal conferences on December 15, 2021.

In a document obtained by The PUNCH, it was gathered that the meetings would take place between December 9 and December 15 in Abuja, Nsukka, Ibadan, Yola, Benin, Akure, Lagos, Bauchi, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Sokoto and Kano.

The source added that the decision to go on strike would depend on the outcome of the zonal press briefings