Nigerian universities to reopen very soon - FG says

The federal government has released a new update on the resumption of all tertiary institutions across Nigeria.

Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, the minister of state for education has said universities will resume soon.

Nwajiuba urged Nigerians students to bear with the government a bit more and stop protesting.

As the pressure on the federal government to reopen tertiary institutions continues to grow, the minister of state for education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has assured students that universities across the nation will resume very soon.

Nwajiuba disclosed this on Monday, August 24, while responding to questions at the Presdential Task Force briefing in Abuja, The Guardian reports.

Though the minister did not announce any specidic date for reumption, he, however urged all students to stop protesting and bear with th government a little bit more.

He explained that the rioting needs to stop as talks are in full negotiation with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The minister speaking further said the ministry is working to articulate the situation report of tertiary institutions from the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other regulatory bodies for evaluation.

This is coming a few days after the minister said that the federal government is making moves to end the ongoing ASUU strike before schools reopen.

Nwajiuba during a program that aired on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on Saturday, August 22, noted that many people want the federal government to resolve the strike before reopening schools.

These people believe some public schools which are not ASUU-prone want to take advantage of the strike to move ahead. The education minister said if this is allowed, it would destroy public schools.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that Nigerian students took to streets to protest the reopening of all tertiary institutions in the country as the two-week ultimatum issued to the federal government by its leaders on reopening of schools elapsed. Read more:

The coalition of National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), National Association of University Students (NAUS), National Association of College of Education Students (NACES) staged a peaceful protest on Wednesday, August 19, despite the heavy threat from police and DSS.

The students vowed to continue to shut down Abuja and all the 36 states.

In a related development, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) has been presented before the federal government by ASUU as an alternative to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

UTAS was presented to the minister of education, Adamu Adamu by the president of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, on Tuesday, August 18.

Moreover, during his briefing in Abuja, Ogunyemi announced that the union will not call off its ongoing strike since, according to him, the government is yet to honour the agreement made in 2019.