The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, has said that most of the agreements reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were under duress.
Echono said this at a retreat organised by the governing council of the University of Abuja.
ASUU and the Federal Government have constantly been engaged in tussles over the latter’s failure to meet some of the demands put forward by ASUU.
ASUU had said that the Federal Government’s blatant disregard for agreements was hypocritical, adding that such action is an invitation for another strike by the union.
“I have heard so much about the fact that the government has failed to honour the agreements with ASUU. I have a different view about that because most of these agreements are imperfect,” Echono said.
“If somebody comes to my house and puts a gun to my head, I might agree to everything because those agreements are signed under duress. If you want to introduce obligations or responsibilities on their part, they will insist you cannot.”
