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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Echono stated this during a retreat organised by the governing council of the University of Abuja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ASUU and the Federal Government have constantly been engaged in tussles over the latter\u2019s failure to meet some of the demands put forward by ASUU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Echono said, \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The source added that the decision to go on strike would depend on the outcome of the zonal press briefings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"