The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has insisted that he would not resign until 30 days before the general election as required by the constitution.
He said Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State was a minister when he contested the governorship primary and won, adding that nobody could confer his opinion on another.
The minister spoke when a group, Project Nigeria, presented the N100m presidential form of the All Progressives Congress it purchased for him on Wednesday.
Nwajiuba urged anyone who was hurt by his decision to remain in office to challenge it in court.
The minister said, “The resignation of a minister or anybody who is in office is guided by the constitution to contest elections.
“We are required to contest elections if we want, required to resign 30 days before the election we wish to contest in. That’s the position of the law. Any other person can have an opinion. My position is that the law of the country rests on the grundnorm called the constitution.
“If you do not like the constitution, your work is to amend it. There is no subrogation of power that is required for you to include into a law what is not deemed as included in that law. If you’re in doubt I’ll remind you about Kayode Fayemi.
“He was in government up till the day he contested in the primary and started his campaign and 30 days to his election he called the federal executive cabinet, and said ‘I am now meeting the requirements of law by resigning.”
Nwajiuba’s decision to contest despite a protracted strike embarked on by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities drew criticisms from Nigerians mainly on social media who argued that the minister ought to focus on ending the crisis rather than his personal political ambition.
Reacting to the criticisms, he pleaded with the lecturers to return to class, assuring them their demands would be met.
He said, “I will like them to return to class so that students can go back to class, as the nation earns, we pay them, as the nation gets money, we will settle them. We don’t want our children to miss the opportunity of their own time because there is a time frame in which children must grow, the time cannot wait. It is important that ASUU returns to class.”
