The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has said that the “trillions” spent on COVID-19 response in Nigeria could have been better utilised in resolving the Federal Government’s dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
He said this as a guest on ‘Sunrise Daily’, a popular Channels TV programme on Friday.
Bello maintained that there was no COVID-19 in the first place, which could have warranted spending such a humongous sum on response.
Recall that ASUU embarked on a warning strike on February 14.
However, the union has extended the strike several times in the past six months.
Other associations such as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) later followed suit, shutting down public universities nationwide.
Reacting to the ongoing strike, Bello said, “Like I used to say; I’ll return to the days when I was a loner, I think I’m still a loner on the issue of no COVID-19. The trillions spent buying nose masks and hand sanitisers…a lot could have solved this ASUU issue, but that’s that.”
He faulted ministers representing the Federal Government in the negotiation with ASUU for not adequately representing President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I don’t think they [ministers] are representing Mr President well. This is a man that cares so much about education, and even children during that lockdown were being fed at home.
“Those who Mr President entrusted to handle this protracted issue are not doing justice to it,” the former presidential aspirant said.
He added that the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) was making effort to bring the six-month-long strike to an end.