by S’ola Filani

The new Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, has appealed to leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) to call off its 11-month old strike.

Shekarau made the appeal in Abuja on Thursday when the leadership of the union, led by the ASUP National President, Chibuzor Asomugha,  paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

Asomugha said the visit was to welcome the minister and to intimate him of the contending issues that resulted in the protracted strike.

According to the union leader, “All ASUP is asking for is that government makes commitment on when and how the issues will be resolved. Our demands are not really complicated. We are asking is for Government to make a commitment, an assurance to us.

“There are issues on ground already and we not negotiating any more. We have reached an understanding on this issues so let’s government give us concrete timetable about how this issues will be resolved,” he said.

Shekarau assured that the Federal Government would keep to its part of agreements reached with the Union, particularly, on payment of salaries and urged the union to understand that there were other very competing issues that government needed to also address.

He appealed to the union to give him more time to study the issues raised while expressing the optimism that the disputes would soon be resolved.

He noted that as minister, he would ensure that “only high standards are set and maintained at all levels of the education sector.’’

The union embarked on the strike over non-release of the white paper on issues in the polytechnic sector since 2012, among others.

Mr. Shekarau, a former Kano State governor, was sworn-in as minister by President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday.