President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, in Ile-Ife, Osun State said his administration would pull together available meagre resources to end agitation and strikes, which have been the bane of Nigeria’s education sector.
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Speaking against the backdrop of the current industrial action embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), at the 43rd convocation ceremony of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Buhari stated that concrete efforts would be made to address myriad of challenges, confronting tertiary education.
The president, who was represented by Dr Suleiman Rahman Yusuff averred that “we are not unmindful of the unlimited agitations of university staff unions in relation to funds. But because of our love for education and in order to safeguard the lives and future of our children, we would continue to pull the meager resources together in order to put an end to agitation and incessant strikes of the unions.”
He added that, “We will continue to provide necessary support and the enabling environment for knowledge generation and dissemination to thrive.”
While tasking the academic to proffer solutions to problems facing the society, the president lamented that “it is unfortunate that most of the outcome of numerous researches and papers presented by our scholars at national and international conferences usually end up on the shelves of their respective authors, supervisors, departmental or faculty libraries and other university archives.”
In his speech, the Vice Chancellor of OAU, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede stated that “the recent challenge the university had with the accreditation of some of its academic programmes was being addressed and would be resolved before the end of the academic session.
He further emphasised that “our avowed zero tolerance to defiant behaviours like cultism, violence and sexual harassment is being demonstrated as culprits, both staff and students are dealt with according to extant laws of the university.”
“This occasion is unique because I am delivering my maiden address as the 11th Vice Chancellor of the university. It is also unique because of the unprecedented number of students graduating with First Class honours (182) and distinctions (15) and the total number of graduands about 13,800 including 410 in the Ph.D category, the highest in history of the university, “Ogunbodede stated.
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