Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu has given a firm directive to the Ministry of Education to ensure that university students remain in school, saying the Federal Government was doing everything humanly possible to prevent further strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Speaking to State House correspondents after meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, the Minister said President Tinubu had mandated him to find lasting solutions to all issues that could disrupt academic activities in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
“As I told you, the President has mandated us that he doesn’t want ASUU to go on strike, and we’re doing everything humanly possible to ensure that our students stay in school,” Alausa said. “The last strike they went on for about six days was not really needed. We’re talking to them.”
He added that: “We’ve met literally all their requirements. Now we’ve gone back to the negotiation table. We’re talking—as I spoke to the leadership this morning. We will resolve this. And part of my visit today here is to also explain where we are with the ASUU strike to Mr. President and to extract more concession from Mr. President.”
On reports of a four-week ultimatum or overfocus on ASUU, the Minister dismissed such claims. “With all due respect to you, that’s not the case,” he said. “The problem in the past was that we had one negotiating committee dealing with universities (ASUU), another one with polytechnics (ASUP), and another with colleges of education (COEASU), and they weren’t talking to one another.
“What we’ve done now is to expand one single committee called the Alhaji Yayale Ahmed Federal Government Negotiating Committee with Tertiary Institutions. They’re dealing with both academic and non-academic unions.”
He added: “As I’m talking to you, they’re talking to the polytechnics, to the colleges of education, as well as ASUU—both academic and non-academic unions. And with all due respect, there is no ultimatum. I still spoke to the president of ASUP yesterday. I’m on first-line call to them. Everything is calm, and they all understand this is a listening government. We will resolve all their problems, resolve a significant part of their problems.”
The minister explained that the administration of President Tinubu remained fully committed to transparency, governance, and accountability in the education sector, adding that this commitment was reflected in the reforms being implemented at the Federal Ministry of Education.
“The government of President Bola Tinubu is about deepening the governance and transparency process in our country, and in the past 26 months, you’ve seen that played out,” Alausa said. “We’ve seen the light now; it’s not even at the end of the tunnel. I can continue to tell you what the President has done over and over in terms of the significant, massive progress that we’ve made.”
The Minister said his own drive at the Ministry was to deepen transparency and governance through evidence-based decision-making.
He stressed that data-driven planning now guides government interventions in education.
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