Students have called on the federal government
to listen to demands of the striking university
lecturers and fund education for the progress of
the country.
This was the resolution at the weekend in Lagos
during a protest by a coalition of student groups
from different campuses in Lagos State.
Speaking to The Nation, the national mobilization
officer of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC),
Wole Olubanji said that the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU) and the Academic Staff
Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) are justified in their
demands, going by the conditions in tertiary
institutions today.
He said, “ASUU and ASUP are justified in their
course. It is the federal government that has been
reneging in their agreement with the body, and the
agreements are still relevant today. We have
universities without schools and laboratories,
pointing to the fact that government have to fund
education.
Asked if the demands made by the university
lecturers are realistic, Olubanji said “When
government was going to bail out the banks, was
it realistic to spend as much as a trillion naira on
bailing bankrupted institutions. But they did that
because they had interest in their deposits saved
in them. But we are talking about institutions that
affect the general Nigerian massesâ€.
“Why should a government exist if it cannot
benefit the citizens? Government should to use
the resources of the country to advance its
citizens, and it can be done by education.â€
Olubaji noted that the Nigerian people are the real
democracy the country enjoys, and they should be
treated as such. “The ordinary Nigerian people
are the real democracy in this country. It is only a
few people that are in the government, and
opposition, majority of Nigerians are not involved,
and this is because they are disappointed in what
they have seen from the government.
The ERC mobilization officer also had a word for
students who just want the strike to end
immediately. “If we have a situation where
Nigerian students are united to make a justified
demand, we will achieve our aims fast, but some
people are afraid and they want ASUU/ASUP to
call off the strike, so that they can graduate, but
from what realistic angle are they coming from in
their argument?
ASUU had embarked on an indefinite strike since
November 5th 2018, with sister body ASUP joining
in 12th December 2018, over the non-
implementation of the 2009 Federal Government/
ASUU agreements and implementation of the
2013 and 2017 Memorandum of Understanding it
signed with the union. The agreement between
the Federal government and ASUP also remain
unimplemented since 2016.
Source: thenationonlineng.net/asuu-asup-strike-fund-education-students-tell-government/
