SAN FRANCISCO, August 16, (THEWILL) – The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has urged the Federal Government and political office holders against politicising its ongoing strike, saying there was nothing political about asking for a full implementation of the 2009 agreement and 2013 Memorandum of Understanding, MoU.
ASUU stated on Wednesday that it was rather the federal government through propaganda machinery that was politicising the moral failure of the federal government to fully implement the agreement it signed with the union.
The union reacting through the Chairman, University of Ibadan Chapter, Dr. Deji Omole, to a member of the House of Representatives, Johnson Agbonayinma, Edo-PDP, who was quoted by a news agency to have said on Tuesday that the strike was a deliberate plot to disrupt the return of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I have great respect for the lecturers and those who have decided to be of help to humanity, I would advise the teachers to continue their good work and avoid politics. It is just that in Nigeria, teachers are not well respected, however, I have a problem with this strike which is nothing but political. There is a political undertone that is being played for ASUU to go on strike and the cabals are part of the problems we are facing, they do not want Nigerians to move forward. For God’s sake, how can Nigerian children spend seven to eight years trying to obtain first degrees as a result of the strike all the time? It does not happen elsewhere in the developing countries, why is Nigeria always behind in everything. There are feelers that President Buhari is coming back to Nigeria, they now decide with the cabals to instigate strike so that Nigeria will be in a chaotic position. We cannot continue like this as a nation,” the Reps member said.
Responding, Omole accused Agbonayinma “of displaying shallow knowledge and playing politics with the lives of children of the masses and the future of the country”, adding that people like “Hon Agbonayinma in the National Assembly, education has no future in the plan of the ruling class” in Nigeria.
Omole also accused the National Assembly of “conspiring with the executive to further reduce allocation to education to six percent in the 2017 budget while pretending to love Nigerian children”.
He challenged Nigerian leaders to demonstrate the love they have for Nigeria by withdrawing their children in private universities both in Nigeria and abroad and stop health tourism by using the health facilities they provide for Nigerians.
The ASUU stated that as “members of intellectual community, it was surprised that the Chairman of the Federal Government negotiation team was also loosing sight of realities that there is a difference from implementation of agreement already signed and renegotiation of the agreement.”
While reiterating the resolve of the body to get full implementation before returning to the classroom, he added that the union will not allow the federal government to mortgage Nigeria’s public education saying the political class has been selfish and self-serving.
Omole also said it was laughable that the lawmaker could ask ASUU to consider the nation and students when it was indeed the union that is fighting to save the future of the nation from maladministration of the political office holders.
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