President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised not to ignore the threat by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to embark on an industrial strike should the Federal Government by this Friday refuse to yield to its demands.
The President of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NPTAN), Alhaji Haruna Danjuma and the deputy National President/South-West Coordinator of the group, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, gave this advice on Wednesday evening in a separate interview with Tribune Online.
They said with the situation of thing at the moment concerning the face-off between the Federal Government and ASUU over their unfulfilled 2009 agreements and the threat to go on strike by the latter, President Buhari should as a matter of necessity arrange for an emergency meeting with the leadership of ASUU to find a common ground way forward.
They said the president should be the person meeting ASUU leadership directly and not the Ministers of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige nor any other government agents as the matter has gone beyond them.
They said it wasn’t as if they were unaware that the Federal Government had met some demands of ASUU as contained in their Agreements, but it should do more and now in the interest of the nation’s development
The duo said ASUU embarking on strike and disrupting the academic calendar particularly at this time after about a whole year was wasted on the general COVID-19 lockdown would do both the nation’s public university education and the country at large great harm that may be difficult to redeem.
According to Danjuma, ASUU is fighting a just cause that will make members proud of being university lecturers and also work in a system that will produce globally competitive high-level manpower.
He said the education sector is too important to be taken with levity by any government and President Buhari should therefore sit down at a round table with ASUU leaders and iron out things with them rather than sending one minister or the other to them.
Ogunbanjo on his part added that it now appears clearly with unfolding events that approach of those who have been representing the Federal Government in previous discussions with ASUU particularly the Minister of Labour and Employment have failed in addressing the concerns of ASUU and without them fielding the President with the right information.
They, therefore, emphasised that President Buhari should at this time intervene directly and avert impending ASUU strike in the interest of the country.
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