ACADEMIC
Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has said only the Federal Government has
solution to the on-going strike.
According to the union, the pitiable condition
of universities across the country is a mockery of global standards of
university education. Speaking through Dr Deji Omole, Chairman of UI branch, in
Ibadan yesterday, the academic union said it had never opposed negotiation.
Omole said the union will continue to fight to force the Federal Government to
wake up to her responsibilities of investing in education. He stressed that
ASUU was not making new demands but the implementation of the 2009 agreement
and 2013 Memorandum of Understanding.
“When you reach an agreement you must
implement it. They just finished Ileya festival and why are we celebrating? It
was because someone promised to sacrifice his son to God. When he decided to
fulfill it, God replaced that with ram and that is why we are celebrating.
Jesus Christ also promised to come and die for the sin of the world and he came
and fulfilled that promise and that is why you still have people who believe in
his second coming.
Why will governments not fulfill their promises contained in
signed agreements? That is what brings crisis. Government should see education
as investment. The products will come out to change the society. “University is
to develop ideas to change society.
What we are doing in the universities is a
mockery of university education. Government should pump in money so that we can
solve Nigeria’s problems here in Nigeria. ”If our universities are properly
funded, we can conduct cutting edge researches that can take us out of recession. What we are simply saying is that
the Federal Government should use public funds to fund public education,” he
said. He reiterated that the minister should check his records and see if there
are new demands in his file.
University lecturers and students are not the ones
who created recession. The ruling class through their activities plunged
Nigeria into recession crisis. Government should stop establishing new
universities if they cannot fund existing ones. Universities are not
constituencies.
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