Arewa Leaders Beg FG to Honour Agreement with ASUU, Lecturers to Shift Ground

Arewa Leaders Beg FG to Honour Agreement with ASUU, Lecturers to Shift Ground

The Arewa Transformational Leaders, ATN, a socio-political group, has called on the Federal government to engage members of the Academic Staff of Universities, ASUU, in the re-negotiating table in the spirit of the collective bargaining principle, in line with international labour laws and best labour relations practices, with a view to ending the ongoing ASUU strike.

It then, pleaded with ASUU members to reason with FG in shifting grounds and finding a middle course posture, in line with the present harsh economic realities Nigeria is confronted with.

According to the group, it is essential that FG respect and honor all agreements it willingly entered with ASSU from 2009, knowing fully well that governments and/or governance is a continuum.

Speaking on the ASUU Face with FG at a press conference in Abuja, Alh. Yusuf Ibrahim, National Chairman of the ATN, said it is quite regrettable that the vast majority of public-owned Universities (State and Federal) in Nigeria have remained closed since mid-February 2022.

He however, called on the government to declare a state of emergency in the educational sector in order to salvage whatever is left of it.

Part of Ibrahim’s speech reads: “This development is very disturbing and forebode a great setback for Nigerians especially those of us in the North. In essence, our universities will remain closed and our children are to remain at home idle, hundreds of supporting businesses and services are thrown out of business resulting in the colossal loss in revenue and services worth billions of Naira adding to the already crippling suffocation and depressing economy.

“There is no doubt, from whatever angle one looks at it, the continuing closure of the universities represent a grave national tragedy and this speaks volumes of the leadership deficit and the priority it accords to the education of its youths and citizens in general.

“Indeed, it is said that “destroying a nation does not require the use of atomic bombs or the use of long range missiles…it only requires lowering the quality of education…the collapse of education is the bedrock in the collapse of the nation…

“In the light of the foregoing, the effects of the strike have attracted a lot of commentary and deservedly so. Education in general is a critical factor in the nation’s march towards socio-economic and political development.

“It is instructive to note here that even without the FGN-ASSU impasse, Nigerians were already confronted with the utter failure of politicians, political office holders, civil service bureaucrats, self-centered capitalists, feudal aristocrats etcetera. These privileged few; with no patriotic commitment to the Nigeria dream, have their children in various educational institutions abroad or in private universities in the country; at the expense of the tax-payers and our collective national wealth. As a result, little attention is paid to the development of public educational facilities and opportunities for children of the majority of the Nigerian masses.

“It is even more painful when observed in the context of the current reality that northerners are currently holding these strategic positions that should expectedly be of immense benefit to the educational development of the region yet, the north is bedeviled by the highest rates of out of school children, cattle rustling, banditry, kidnapping, drug addiction, prostitution, unemployment and poverty etc.

“At this juncture, without wanting to engage in meaningless blame game, we wish to lend our voice therefore in calling on all men and women of goodwill, all patriotic Nigerians and other stakeholders in the education sector, to urgently intervene towards mediating to end the FGN-ASUU dispute and the re-opening of our universities, to ensure the educational development of Nigerian students”.

By PRNigeria