ASUU strike: Universities closure unacceptable, worrisome — Peter Obi

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 general election, Mr Peter Obi has expressed worry over the lingering strike by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has kept public owned universities’ students at home for over six months.

ASUU had earlier on February 14, 2022 embarked on a four weeks warning strike which was later extended to six months over the failure of the Federal Government to meet their demands.

However, the decision of the union to extend the strike indefinitely has continued to generate reactions from students, parents, educational stakeholders and politicians.

Reacting to the development, the former Anambra State governor on Wednesday in a series of tweets shared on his verified Twitter handle lamented over the prolonged strike and called on the government to as a matter of urgency ensure all hands are on deck to make sure the affected students return to classes.

According to him, the prolonged strike was worrisome, and unacceptable and shouldn’t have been allowed to linger for so long by the Federal Government.

“Our position is that the ASUU strike has lingered for far too long. It is unconscionable, worrisome and unacceptable that FGN would allow such an industrial action to become almost intractable to the detriment of our students.”

He continued that  “It’s time for FGN to engage in collaborative negotiations with ASUU, and in good faith.”

The presidential hopeful equally raised alarm over the high level of corruption that has eaten deep into the Nigerian society and condemned ethnicity, regional, and religion-based division among the people.

“Nigeria is vastly polarized and wracked by deep divisions along religious, ethnic and regional lines. There is a staggering level of corruption. Our universities have remained closed for six months.”

While also lamenting over the dying state of Nigerian health care and low power supply, Mr Obi said “Our healthcare system remains almost moribund, power generation and distribution are also at an all-time low.”