There seems no end in sight to the “total, comprehensive and indefinite strike” embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) since November 4, as the academic body has threatened not to hold further talks with the federal government, alleging that the federal government was paying lip service to the ongoing negotiations to call off the industrial action.
ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in a conference in Lagos on Sunday, alleged that the federal government was encouraging insurgency, banditry, poverty, kidnapping, misery and other societal by its neglect of the education sector, specifically by allowing the strike to continue longer than necessary.
Ogunyemi said that the union has six meetings with agents of the Federal Government since the commencement of the strike, but that Government appears to have adopted ‘keep them talking’ strategy while deceiving the public that progress was being made and that partial agreements had been reached between union and government.
He added that Nigeria will never get things right until education is prioritized, even as he said that qualitative and public-funded education is not an option; but inevitable if Nigeria ever wishes to banish poverty, ignorance, sqaulor, insecurity, disease and curruption.
He said: “We want to say that government has continually and falsely raised the hopes of the Nigerian public on the state of duscussion with our union and we may not be interested in holding further dialogue with them until we see signs of commitment and sincerity in addressing the issues before them. Our expectation from a very responsive and sincere position is that by now, all outstanding issues would gave been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties. Unfortunately, government is yet to show commitment and sincerity in addressing these problems.
““If we miss education, we miss development, as we will end up being enslaved the second time. People are privatising everything, including education and before we know it, what happened to our primary and secondary education will happen. Our members have the conviction that until we get education right, Nigeria will never get it right. Insurgency will increase, banditry, poverty, kidnapping, misery and other societal ills will continue. Our strike has nothing to do with politics or election, as is being speculated in some sectors of the society. We have never thought of aborting any election. We do not want to create problem for this country but let government do the right thing.”
