Tuesday, October 22, 2013

ASUU Rubbishes Jonathan's Plea, Check Out ASUU Condition for Ending Strike

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 ruler.

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