Claim: A Twitter handle tweeted a claim that the education minister, Adamu Adamu, said the ongoing ASUU strike will be called off within the next one week.
Our findings show no report of the statement accredited to the minister. The claim was also dismissed by the spokesperson for the education minister.
Full Text
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) rolled over its warning strike by 12 weeks in May, in order to resume negotiations and have the Nigerian government meet the Union’s demands.
The rollover strike took effect from May 9, a decision made after its National Executive Council meeting.
Nigerian students have protested the strike and called on the parties involved to call off the strike for their future.
Due to the impact of the strike and the perennial conversations surrounding the strike, some false information about resumption has recently been shared.
A Twitter handle, ASUU News (@ASUUNews), shared a post with the claim that the education minister, Adamu Adamu, said the ongoing ASUU strike will be called off within the next one week, attaching a picture of the minister to the tweet.
The post attracted over 4,000 likes, 1,000 retweets and 700 comments.
A Twitter user, _lexa (@Alicefaluyi), a Nigerian student affected by the strike commented, “Thank you jesus 😭😭😭😭,” apparently believing the post.
Another user, YouFeelMe (@Aayomide9) in a doubtful manner replied
“Don’t thank Jesus yet, you can’t trust these people.”
Myriads of information on the existing strike have been on social media. Nigerian students who have been affected pay attention to this influx of information to know what is next for their future. Hence the need for DUBAWA to fact-check this claim.
Verification
DUBAWA carried out a keyword search on the internet to verify this claim.
We found that ASUU has made progress in its talks with the federal government. Also, we found a news article by Vanguard that ASUU currently awaits the reply of the federal government to the union’s presentation.
DUBAWA also found a news report by Business Day where the federal government said that the “ASUU Strike is more complicated than Nigerians think”.
Meanwhile, another report showed the stance of ASUU on the strike. A news headline by Punch reads, “We are not beggars, hunger won’t force us to resume – ASUU”.
None of these articles suggested a resumption as claimed.
DUBAWA then reached out to the education minister’s spokesperson, Mr. Ben Goong, for clarification. He said that the supposed statement accredited to the minister is “fake news”.
Conclusion
Our findings show no report of the statement accredited to the education minister. The spokesperson of the minister also dismissed this claim as “fake news”. This claim is therefore false.
