The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged
President Muhammadu Buhari to meet with the Prof. Nimi Briggs-led Committee on
negotiation, following his latest ‘enough is enough’ comments.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osekede, said this in an
interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Recall that the Briggs committee, which was set up by the
Federal Government on June 7, is renegotiating the 2009 Agreement with ASUU and
will submit its report to the Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu in three
months.
Buhari had, in a statement issued by the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, saying,
“truly, enough is enough for keeping students at home.’’
He spoke while receiving governors of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), legislators and political leaders at his residence in Daura,
Katsina State, on Monday.
Reacting to the development, Osedeke said: “I do not
understand why Mr President said that ‘enough is enough’, when we are not the
one delaying the students at home.
“The federal government had sent its team to negotiate with
us and we have finished. Instead of coming back to us to tell us the outcome of
the meeting, we are hearing this.
“If you set up a committee to negotiate on your behalf, and
the committee has finished and they have brought the information to you to sign
and then you said enough is a enough, what does this mean.’’
Also reacting, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Lagos, Dr. Adelaja
Odukoya, in a statement on Tuesday, attributed the five months old strike to
the inability of President Buhari’s government to resolve the issues.
He described the President’s comment as a mere wishful
thinking, stressing that the struggle to reposition the public university
education in Nigeria would continue.
The statement reads in part, “Mr. President, saying that
enough is enough is mere wishful thinking and will not resolve the present
decadence in our universities nor stop the present struggle to reposition our
public universities.
“For the records, Mr. President, enough will not be enough
in the struggle to reposition the public university education in Nigeria under
this present administration and beyond as long as; the Nigerian public
universities are reduced to a glorified secondary schools for the production of
poor quality and globally uncompetitive, rejected and unemployable graduates
and Nigerian academics remain one of the poorest paid scholars not only in
Africa but the world.”
Recall that ASUU, on February 14, shut down all public
universities, asking the FG to implement previous agreements that both parties
entered into.
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