POLITICAL NOTES
Less than two weeks after the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, openly confessed that he failed in his responsibility in office, it seems he is not in any way ready to remedy the situation.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which embarked on strike in February, called it off in October following the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila. All through the period of the strike, Adamu, whose ministry is charge of education, was hardly seen playing any critical role to resolve the issue.
Before the strike was called off, the federal government had insisted that members of ASUU would not be paid for work not done in line with the ‘No work no pay’ policy. The lecturers thought it was a joke.
However, at the end of October, the union members got half salaries, a move which did not go down well with them.
Last Wednesday, State House reporters took up the minister after the Federal Executive Council meeting. In his response, Adamu said the position of the federal government was that the lecturers “would not be paid for work not done.”
When told that the lecturers were threatening a one-day action to protest government’s action, Adamu said he was not aware.
It was the same Adamu, who while speaking at the 66th National Council on Education in Abuja, said it was regrettable that despite being the longest-serving education minister in the nation’s history that he was unable to solve several of the challenges of the sector.
Many Nigerians had blamed the minister for allowing the ASUU strike to last for eight months until the National Assembly stepped in.
After his open confession, since he did not resign, many Nigerians had thought it was a clear opportunity for him redeem himself. But he is on his own blowing it.
Adamu’s action confirms the impression ASUU has that the federal government is not concerned if they are in school or not because all their children are not in public schools.
It is shocking how the minister wants to be remembered by the time he leaves office in 2023. Will he go down in history as a leader who contributed to improve education in the country or one who destroyed it?
