BY DAYO ADESULU
Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) to put more pressure on the Federal Government to accede to their demands to enable them to call off their industrial action.
To proffer a solution to the lingering ASUU strike, the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) suggested that each parent should be levied N10,000 per session to resolve the lack of funding bedevilling the sector.
Dr Ademola Ekundayo, the spokesman of NAPTAN, during a recent interview, explained that the suggestion of levy was taken to help the Federal Government meet ASUU’s requests.
“It can be called parents’ support levy for universities. We are at the receiving end of the industrial action. We plead with the ASUU and Federal Government to immediately resolve their differences,” he said.
But, ASUU’s National President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, responded to the proposal by rejecting it during an appearance on Arise Television, yesterday.
Instead, he advised the association to put more pressure on government
“I think what this association should be doing is to tell the government to perform its function. They should put pressure on the government to use Nigerians’ money to fund education as it is done in other countries.
“We can’t be calling ourselves the giant of Africa and we are the worst in education. You see students from Nigeria going to Ghana, Benin Republic, Togo, and other small countries to study but nobody from these countries are coming to Nigeria to study.
“So they should add to the pressure coming from ASUU to ensure that the government prioritize education. That is more important than the N10,000.”
He enjoined Nigerians to disregard a document on social media that ASUU chapters voted for an indefinite strike except for a particular university in Niger State.
He, however, confirmed that members from all chapters have been invited for a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting next week.
“It’s at that meeting that they would all vote and decide on the next line of action as regards the six months strike.”
He maintained that ASUU, at national level, do not impose decisions on all the chapters, rather, they present matters to them for critical deliberation and decision on what is good for them and other members, considering their peculiarities.
On August 1, ASUU announced an extension of its ongoing nationwide strike by four weeks to, perhaps, give Federal Government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues but from all indications, the issues are yet to be resolved.
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, told State House Correspondents recently that Federal Government and ASUU have reached agreements on virtually all the contentious areas except the issue of six months salary arrears which he said would not be paid because they did not work for it.
As the feud lingers, Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, has appealed to both parties to find ways of resolving the crisis for the interest of students and the nation as a whole.
Abiodun, who made the appeal at the inauguration of the Governing-Councils of the state-owned tertiary institutions in Abeokuta, decried the prolonged crisis, which according to him has done more harm to the education sector of the country.
“This is no more a matter of who is right or who is wrong, it is a matter of what is good for the youths of our nation. I, therefore, appeal to both sides to find a meeting point and resolve this crisis for the good of our youths and our nation in general”, he pleaded.
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