The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has said the Federal Government was not in a position to borrow N1.2 trillion yearly to end the lingering industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Keyamo said the Federal Government would not allow ASUU to push it to plunge into another burden of borrowings.

The minister said this while speaking on Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, on Friday.

The Star recalls that ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike on February 14, 2022, over the adoption of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) of the government as the payment system in the university sector.

They had also decried the poor funding of universities, non-payment of salaries and allowances of some of their colleagues, as well as the inability of the government to pay earned academic allowance to lecturers, among other issues.

However, Keyamo, while speaking on Friday, said the Federal Government can not go beyond its capacity, saying the government has other sectors to fund.

The minister said: “Should we go and borrow to pay N1.2 trillion yearly?

“You cannot allow one sector of the economy to hold you by the jugular and then blackmail you to go and borrow N1.2 trillion for overheads when our total income would be about N6.1 trillion.

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“And you have roads to build, health centres to build, other sectors to take care of.”

Keyamo, who further asked parents across the country to beg ASUU over the prolonged strike, said: “Like the President said the other time, those who know them, appeal to their sense of patriotism.

“Let them go back to classes. They are not the only one in Nigeria. They are not the only ones feeding from the federal purse.

“The nation cannot grind to a halt because we want to take care of the demands of ASUU,” the minister stated.

The Star