Nwajiuba says he never asked lecturers to quit teaching for farming

Friday, October 09, 2020 at 12:10 AM by Kess Ewubare

- Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has reacted to the controversy surrounding his statement on farming

- The minister of state for education denies telling lecturers to take up farming as an alternative for their jobs

- Nwajiuba claims he was quoted out of context by the media

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The minister of state for education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has clarified the statement he made to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) about farming.

Nwajiuba explained that he never asked the lecturers to quit their jobs for farming, The Tribune reported.

Why I told lecturers to go into farming - Education minister — Nwajiuba accuses the media of quoting him out of context. Photo credits: Wikipedia.org
Source: UGC

A spokesperson for the ministry of education, Ben Bem Goong stated that Nwajiuba only encouraged members of ASUU to take up farming as an alternative source of income.

Goong said the minister was quoted out of context in a section of the media.

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The ministry of education argued that the minister’s advice was in agreement with the goals of the current administration to encourage farming across the country.

The spokesperson said:

“The Federal Ministry of Education is therefore surprised at the outburst of ASUU on the Minister’s statement as there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking up farming while still working.

“The Hon. Minister of State is on point. The outburst of the Academic Staff Union of Universities is clearly a matter of transferred aggression, totally unfounded, misguided and absolutely unnecessary."

Meanwhile, following the announcement of the resumption of academic activities in all primary and secondary schools across the country, the federal government released fresh guidelines that must be strictly adhered to.

Legit.ng reported that the national coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu, made this known during a briefing in Abuja on Thursday, October 8.