ASUU Srtike: FG, ASUU Can’t Handle The Situation – Ezekwesili October 25, 2013 8:50 am EzekwesiliAs the federal government struggles to find a solution to the protracted strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), former education minister, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, has said that the crisis is now beyond the government and the union as the parties can no longer handle the situation. Dr Ezekwesili said Nigerians must now demand that there be a another approach to arriving at the kind of the university system to be run in the country. Speaking to newsmen yesterday in Abuja, at the Unity Schools Old Students’ Association (USOSA) One-Day Summit/Dialogue on Education, Good Governance and National Unity, the former minister said “there is no time because the rest of the world has used knowledge as a basis to completely leave us at the lower ranks of economic development.” She said: “The two parties so far seem to have failed to have a principled negotiation. This is no longer a matter between the government and ASUU; this has become a matter between the people of Nigeria, government and ASUU. “I think the citizens must now demand that there be a neutral approach at identifying what will be the solution to the kind of university system that we want to run.” The former vice president of the World Bank said the ASUU agreement was not signed during her tenure as education minister. According to her, “When I was the minister of education, I personally got Mr Gamaliel Onosode, a distinguished professional, to lead the negotiation, but what subsequently happened after I left office in 2007 is open to interpretation of those who were part of the final negotiation that was said to have been signed in 2009. “And one thing that I do know is that there are many points of convergence between the federal government and ASUU at the time in 2007 when I was leaving to Washington DC to resume my position as the vice president of World Bank”. ASUU yesterday called on the National Assembly to stop ‘begging’ it over the strike but to plug spending leakages in government to allow for provision of needed infrastructure for the masses. The chairman of the University of Ibadan branch of the union, Dr Olusegun Ajiboye, in a statement tagged, ‘The Goofing Professor Adeyeye: Senate and Begging Comments’, said the Senate Vice Chairman, Committee on Education Professor Sola Adeyeye, was using public funds to train all his children abroad, hence he lacks knowledge about the situation of things in Nigerian universities. ASUU also lashed out at Adeyeye over his comments where he querried the rationale by professors should be paid to supervise postgraduate students. As ASUU strike enters 134 days today, the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) has urged the federal government and ASUU to publish the hidden truths that are unknown to Nigerians about the agreement between the duo. National president of the association, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, a.k.a. Mutuwan Dole, made the call yesterday in Abuja when speaking to journalists concerning the disastrous effects of the protracted strike. The union also frowned at the comment of Senate President David Mark that ASUU would lose public sympathy if it did not call off its strike,describing it as careless and saying that the Senate had already lost its credibility among Nigerians over its bogus allowances and its perpetual anti-masses stance as opposed to the progressives in the House of Representatives. He said, “We are fighting a just cause. Can the Senate members wait for four years of their tenure before their allowances are paid?”
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 11:37:51 +0000
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