By LAIDE AKINBOADE & AZEEZ SANUSI

ABUJA—The Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, yesterday, gave two weeks ultimatum to the Federal Government to honour the agreement it reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, or face total shutdown of the education sector in the country.

The NUT President Comrade Alogba Olukoya, stated this while addressing newsmen in Abuja.

He said it is imperative for the Federal Government to fully honour the 2009 agreement with ASUU or NUT would mobilize it members and shut down completely the educational sector in the country.

According to him, “Education is a thing that is worth addressing, during our time when we used to sit under the tree, the quality of education was better than this. So we want to draw the attention to everybody, especially those in public education to at least focus their attention to education.

“If at the end of two weeks this matter remains the way it is, we shall shut down our primary and secondary education in solidarity with ASUU. The demand of ASUU is not new so we should begin to respect agreements. Go to our public universities and see what is happening, since 2009 they have not demanded for anything new.

“We are already working with the students and let it be known that we don’t have functioning primary, secondary and university education in the country. We have already asked our people to begin  mobilization”.

Comrade Olukoya said the struggle of ASUU is not only to improve the condition of service but for the return of quality education in the universities through appropriate funding and provision of infrastructural facilities.

He said: “The current struggle of ASUU is most nationalistic, patriotic and self sacrificing, we commend our teachers for remaining solid and immovable in the face of threats. May we call on the Federal Government to demonstrate responsiveness and similar partrotism by acceding to the demand of ASUU, which we consider reasonable and just and fair.”

The NUT President condemned the position of the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole concerning the general qualification of teachers, saying the teachers shouldn’t be blamed but that the blame should go to the employers.

Meanwhile, the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria, APBN, yesterday, in Lagos, urged the Federal Government to settle with ASUU so that tertiary institutions can re-open quickly to avoid producing half-baked university graduates. The president of the association, Mr Bala Bawa Kaoje, who spoke during the 29th Annual General Assembly of the body, also stressed the need for government to reduce its domestic debt of $42.99 billion considerably to provide succour to local contractors and consultants.