The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress
(APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman has said until the federal government introduces a
no-work, no-pay policy, members of the Academic Union of Universities (ASUU)
will continue to hold the country to ransom due to their incessant strikes.
Lukman stated this on Sunday in Abuja during a media
interaction with select journalists, stressing that it was a destructive
culture to pay striking workers.
He was of the opinion that investment in public education
was a necessity that should not be taken for granted.
Lukman said the romance of the Ibrahim Babangida regime with
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policies which imposed the
Structural Adjustment Programme that put a stop to investment in public
education was the beginning of the collapse of the sector.
The party chieftain noted that Nigeria should return to the
old framework which was destroyed by IMF/World Bank policies, insisting that no
country advances through private funding of the educational sector.
Lukman said, “Since 1985, the crisis we have had is that
investment in public education has been frozen which has produced the gap we
have today, whereby we have children but no schools for them to attend; where
we have schools but no teachers; where we have schools, no teaching materials.”
He stressed that part of the crisis that must be resolved
politically was to restore sanity in the critical sector.
The party chieftain insisted that regulating the conduct of
ASUU and ensuring that it conforms with some minimum standard that would
guarantee the development of the younger generation has become necessary.
Lukman added: “Now, unfortunately, even our so-called public
intellectuals, I don’t see any intellect in the debate going on now led by
ASUU. They are not talking about detail, they talk about money in very crude
terms as if it is rainfall from heaven. They ask the government to bring
X-billion and they don’t give a damn whether on account of their action they
are destroying the lives of the younger generation.
“Go and read about my last write up about ASUU strike when
they got an agreement of about N30 billion from the federal government. I asked
a question: after that N30 billion is expended, where will the next round come
from? Because it will be earned again and that is the trap we are in.
“And unfortunately we have also created a destructive
culture, whether ASUU work or not, as long as they are on strike, whenever they
resume, they get paid. As far as ASUU members are concerned, during this period
they are on strike, the government is helping them to save. Meanwhile, our
children are sitting with us at home. Those of us that have no time, we can’t
even afford to feed them, we have to deregulate and allow them to go out.
Whether they do criminal activities or not, it doesn’t matter.
“That is why I said we have to do hard negotiations. And for
me, those hard negotiations include the fact that anybody who is ready in the
name of strike to spend one week outside class, no matter the matter, doesn’t
have to be in our classrooms. We can’t invest in such responsibility because
the life of the child cannot be suspended by one month.”
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