The Federal government has said that the indefinite strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was totally unnecessary as the agreement that warranted their decision was inherited from the previous government.

Speaking during an interview on Channels TV Programme, Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu said the funds being demanded by the union cannot be realised by the government.

He affirmed that the leadership of ASUU was aware of the fact that the Federal Government had set up a committee on the matter adding that all they needed to do was sit down with the committee and dialogue on ways to tackle the lingering problem.

“Governments enter into agreements that they can pay for. Ability to pay is a key requirement in going into agreements. Since President Buhari assumed office, he has sent words out there in form of a warning to all government institutions that they should not go into negotiations and agreements that they cannot pay for, but get clearance.

“I understand that they are talking about debts owed their members to the tune of N850 billion. If I am correct, the entire appropriation for the Ministry of Education for this year is N369 billion. So where do they want us to get the money from?

“We have inherited these agreements and we are not running away from them. Government has set up a committee led by Babalakin. They are already sitting. Why didn’t they sit down and negotiate?

“This strike is totally unnecessary. The issue can be resolved, especially where we have full understanding of where we are coming from. The government that signed those agreements did not deem it fit to implement because the capacity was not there.

Garba added that whenever the ASUU leadership was ready to dialogue, the government already had a committee of capable and qualified members ready to sit down and negotiate with them.