Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, says he can drive from Abuja to Kaduna without security escort.
He stated this in an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday, adding that the media is exaggerating the extent of insecurity in the country.
Keyamo, who also serves as the spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign council, said the activities of Boko Haram has been reduced drastically in the north-east.
He said; “I saw headlines last week saying that I said insecurity has been brought to an all-time low by Buhari. I didn’t say so. It’s still the season of wrong headline. I said what we met on the ground, Boko Haram in the north-east. I was specific and so they quoted me generally to say Boko Haram and insecurity throughout the whole country.
I only said Boko Haram in the north-east, it has not been totally wiped out, but we have reduced this significantly. All the roads that lead to Chibok and Damboa in Borno, they are now passable.”
In other news, Keyamo had said that the incessant Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU), strike is because of the 2009 agreement signed by the Peoples Democratic Party-led government under President Umar Musa Yar’Adua.
Keyamo, who is also spokesperson for the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC), spoke during an interview on Trust TV’s Daily Politics on Monday.
The Senior Advocate said that ASUU went on strike for a total of 12 times between 1999 and 2015, amounting to 900 days.
He said the PDP government made promises which could not be fulfilled which is what led to the current situation with ASUU.
The minister said; “The ASUU thing you are talking about. What is the problem of ASUU now? It’s the 2009 agreement signed by PDP government. They signed agreements with ASUU they couldn’t fulfill. We had to inherit those agreements and now struggling to renegotiate those agreements.
“Imagine how irresponsible a government can be when they went into agreements with ASUU and signed conditions that they couldn’t fulfill and that is why ASUU is on strike so let us tell Nigerians that ASUU is not on strike because APC signed an agreement with them. It was the PDP that signed the agreement.
“We are not shifting blame; we are going to tackle the problem. Between 1999 and 2015 when they handed over to the APC, ASUU was on strike 12 times. I have the statistics amounting to 900 days.”
