Strike: FG Deceiving Nigerians– ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the Federal Government of insincerity and lack of commitment to ending the ongoing strike in the country. The Ibadan Zone branch of the union made the accusation in a statement on Thursday, by its Acting Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka. The lecturers have been on an indefinite strike for almost three months now over the federal government’s inability to honour an agreement entered into in 2009. Ogbinaka, who claimed that negotiation meetings held with the federal government has yielded no result, described the meetings as a “lip-service negotiation”. He said: “Since the commencement of this strike, government has equally demonstrated to Nigerians its willingness to implement the agreement freely entered to with ASUU. After several meetings between ASUU team and representatives of the Federal Government, there has been absolute demonstration of bad faith by government. “This led to the intervention of the Vice-President of Nigeria, Namadi Sambo. After the meeting of Tuesday 19, September with the Vice-President, it is clear that the FG is merely paying lip-service to education in Nigeria and deceiving the Nigerian public on their commitment to its transformation agenda.” He warned students and parents not to be deceived with the agenda of the government, saying the strike was in the interest of Nigeria’s educational system. He said: “ASUU has demonstrated great commitment and patriotism since 2006 when the negotiation started and culminated in the 2009 Agreement. It has allowed government to use its agencies to verify the claims of decrepit infrastructure in the University System. This resulted in the production of the NEEDS Assessment Document of 2012. “The Nigerian people should not be deceived. How can there be a meaningful transformation when the education sector is neglected and gradually taken over by private entrepreneurs including government functionaries who are busy building private universities with stolen funds in and outside Nigeria? Can these universities be truly called private?” Meanwhile, students of Bayero University, Kano (BUK) on Thursday protested unsolved demand between the Federal Government and ASUU. It gave FG one week ultimatum to meet with all the demands of ASUU or face the wrath of Nigerian students. Speaking on behalf of the students, the University’s SUG President, Sani Ibrahim said they staged the protest over their long stay at home. “It is because we are tired of staying at home. Our mates in other countries are in school; why should the case of Nigerian students be different? “As part of the struggle to fight for our right is being pursued, I will like to salute our students for their patience while receiving the negative consequences of bad governance. We believe that the delay in resuming lectures in our Universities is not only lamentable but also devastating. “We believe even more strongly that now is the time to let our leaders know that enough is enough and we shall wake up and say no to injustice being meted out to Nigerian students.” But for the intervention of police officers dispatched from the Bompai Police Headquarters, who pleaded with the protesting students, they would have taken to the streets.