Lawmakers are going for the jugular of Education Minister, Sam Egwu, 48 hours after the Trade Union Congress (TUC) demanded his sack for the shoddy way he has handled the strike by university lecturers.
Members of the House of Representatives crafted a motion on Monday, to be tabled at plenary this week, to probe his alleged spending of N120 million to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary.
All the heads of tertiary institutions who participated in the lavish gig will also be investigated.
The motion, sponsored by Halims Agoda, wants a mandate for the Education Committee to inquire into the sources of the N120 million.
It also wants the Committee to probe the sources of funds "used by university administrators, Provosts of colleges of education, Rectors of polytechnics and heads of parastatals of the ministry of education who attended the wedding anniversary in terms of expenses on transportation, travelling basic allowances, and other logistics, including media coverage, and recommend appropriate action to the House of Representatives."
The motion demands "an immediate and an unconditional public apology from Egwu to university students and their parents and guardians for conducting himself in a manner suggestive of disregard for the current plight of students."
It asked lawmakers to call on President Umaru Yar'Adua to "re-engineer his cabinet in order to give purposeful leadership to the country by cautioning his appointees whose conduct, actions or inactions portend a frontal onslaught on the sensibilities of the Nigerian people."
The motion noted that Egwu ought to proffer immediate and workable solutions to the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) now threatening the survival of the university system.
It lamented that "without due regard to this basic fundamental of (his) responsibility, (Egwu), in a brazen show of contempt, insensitivity and a breach of acceptable social values, rather than get himself concerned with and involved in getting our universities re-opened, felt that it would serve greater public interest to tell Nigerians that his marriage is 25 years old with lavish celebrations."
Egwu had argued at the weekend that take it or leave it, the government has conceded enough, and shot down further demands by university lecturers who have been on strike since June 22.
Both TUC President General, Peter Esele, and General Secretary, John Kolawole, reacted on Sunday by saying that "the latest utterances from Egwu are a pointer that he is not capable to lead the education sector. We therefore call on the government for his immediate removal or face the wrath of Labour."
The ASUU itself on Monday accused the Federal Government of insincerity, despite its offer of 40 per cent increase in the salary of lecturers.
ASUU National President, Ukachukwu Awuzie, told journalists in Abuja that the lecturers are not in a hurry to end the strike, saying the government has abandoned agreements reached in negotiations.
His words: "You must have also heard the Minister of Labour, Hassan Mohammed Lawal, unilaterally pronouncing dead the ASUU-FG negotiation process that had reached its conclusion stage.
"(Lawal) declared strangely that those academics who left Nigeria for foreign countries did so, not because of lack of attractive conditions of service, but because they did not love their country."
ASUU Chairman at the University of Ibadan (UI), Abiodun Aremu, also accused the government of insincerity, and urged the public not to take Abuja seriously.
''ASUU has only one demand, which is for the government to sign an agreement we both freely reached as far back as last year. It is just engaging in mere propaganda and we are not moved," he said.
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