The Academic Staff Union of Universities has
said plea of President Goodluck Jonathan was
not enough to end the ongoing strike.
It said the only condition that will make the strike to be called off is for government to honour the 2009 agreements.
The Chairman of ASUU at the Obafemi Awolowo
University (OAU), Ile Ife, Prof. Adegbola
Akinola, said this on Monday during the rally staged by members of the union.
Akinola said it was not necessary for the
President to beg ASUU, rather he should honour the agreement reached with the union in 2009.
He said: " ASUU does not need any plea from
Mr. President. We are not asking for
impossible things; the Federal Government
reached an agreement with us and we are asking them to honour it. It is so simple.
"Government should be honourable. Is it
honourable not to honour an agreement?
Certainly no.
The Federal Government should not allow the public universities to continue to degenerate.
Posterity will not forgive us if we allow public universities to totally collapse.
The country has the resources to honour the agreement but education is not given priority."
He explained that the strike was not about
members of the union but a means to force the government to do the right things saying
children from poor background might no longer have access to university education if ASUU should succumb to the blackmail being employed against the union.
Akinola, who led the protest, appealed to the Federal Government to accede to ASUU's
demands to enable the union suspend the
industrial action.
Addressing residents at Ooni Okunade
Sijuwade's palace, Akinola said the education sector deserved a better deal.
Also speaking, a member of the union, Prof.
Gbolahan Babalola, said the education of
Nigerian children was a more critical agenda.
Babalola said the protest was to show the
concern of ASUU for undergraduates who had
stayed at home for months.
He called on traditional rulers and other
stakeholders to intervene to resolve the
impasse.
The Sarun Oodua, Chief Adekola Adeyeye, who
represented Sijuwade, commended ASUU over its peaceful conduct and show of concern for students.
Adeyeye said that the Ooni understood that
education was the best legacy that any parent or government could bequeath to any Nigerian child.
He gave an assurance that the union's
message would be relayed to the traditional rulers.
1 Response to "ASUU Rubbishes Jonathan's Plea, Gives Condition for Ending Strike"
i am begining to suspect that this whole thing has some political undertone. God will vindicate nigeria students,because they are the ones at the receiving end.
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