President Muhammadu Buhari has said that, neither during nor after the meeting with Ministries, Departments and Agencies that he had given any ultimatum to the Minister of Education to end the agitation by university unions.
The President made the clarification through his Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu in a statement made available to viewfinderng.com.
“Neither during nor after the meeting was any ultimatum given to the Minister of Education.” The statement said,
Malam Garba said, the meeting with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to end the agitations by university unions ought to be beyond spin-doctoring and conjectures.
“ It is a pity that almost all media houses allowed themselves to be deceived by interested sources that are not the authorized spokesmen of government”.
He said, during the meeting, the Minister of Education requested that the Minister of Labour hands off the negotiation to allow him lead and conclude what he had earlier on started with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). And he promised that he could get an agreement within the shortest possible time, possibly two to three weeks.
In carrying out this assignment, the Minister will carry along all relevant ministries and agencies with statutory functions and duties relating to the issues involved.
The Presidency is optimistic that agreements can be reached in an even shorter period if all parties/stakeholders are not unrealistically obstinate.
“We appeal to the parties to work together to end the strikes”. He said
On the part of the administration, all doors remain open for dialogue and the resolution of the issues.
Garba appealed to the media not try to spread misinformation. The orchestrated media narratives seeking to present an entirely different picture, attributed to sources, in the last 24 hours are not helpful at all. He emphasized.
