The former Minister of State for Education Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has apologised to Nigerians over the ongoing strike by the Academic Union of Universities (ASUU), claiming that his children are also affected by the situation.
Nwajiuba, a presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), resigned from the ministry of education on Wednesday May 11, after President Muhammadu Buhari directed all political office holders who are seeking to contest in the 2023 general elections to resign from their positions latest by May 16.
ASUU extended its strike by another 12 weeks last Monday following the Federal Government’s refusal to honour the agreement signed by both parties.
Speaking during a programme on Channels Television, Sunday Politics, Nwajiuba said;
“I do apologise to Nigerian students because as their minister, I will take responsibility. But also, on behalf of the Federal Government, I would say ‘please understand what the issues are.
“All my four children have passed through Nigerian universities. I still have two who are at home now, because they are all in public universities.”
“I have proposed, and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, will continue discussing this with Mr. President, a new scheme in which universities have a different way of earning money to be able to care for themselves.
“Because you see, there are only 50 of these federal universities and there are 200 others. However, these 50 alone are more than 75 percent of the number of students in the entire university structure – about 2.2m of them.
“So, it is important we give them a funding structure; we need to bring a funding structure to the table because this coming hand-in-cap to the Federal Government at all times cannot be continued and is not sustainable.”
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