The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says
students may spend more time at home since no solid agreement has been reached
in its negotiation with the federal government.
Abiodun Ogunyemi, national president of ASUU, said this on
Thursday while speaking with reporters in Lagos.
The union commenced an indefinite strike on November 5.
Ogunyemi appealed to parents and students to show
understanding, saying the industrial action is meant to avert total collapse of
the country’s university system.
“We want to call on our students and parents to show
understanding with our struggle as we are in this together,” he said.
“The whole essence of this struggle is to ensure that our students
get worthy and deserving certificates that they will be proud of anywhere they
may find themselves in the world.
“The struggle is to ensure too that we save Nigerian
universities from going the way our public primary and secondary schools have
gone.
“Today, most parents are sending their children and wards to
private primary and secondary schools around the country because of the
perceived or alleged falling standards.
“We do not want our universities to go the same way because
a lot of our parents may not be able to afford the private university fees.”
Ogunyemi asked Nigerians to rise up and join the union to
put pressure on the government.
“The sad thing now is that the World Bank is giving funds to
some private universities to thrive over public universities,” he saidd.
“Unless Nigerians rise to the occasion and join ASUU in
putting pressure on both the federal and state governments to pay adequate
attention to our universities, secondary and primary schools, we may be facing
a total collapse of our educational sector.
“We met on Monday in order to reach an agreement on the key
issues we are agitating for but nothing tangible came out of the meeting.
“Rather than come out with firm commitment on what to do
about these demands, they were appealing to us to go back to the classrooms
while they tackle the issues; and to us they have missed the point.
“We were told that the negotiation will continue on Friday,
November 30 but up till now, as we speak, I have not received any notice of
meeting to that effect.”
Two weeks ago, the meeting between the union and the federal
government ended in a deadlock.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com