President Muhammadu Buhari has called on members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to reconsider their position on the prolonged strike and resume work for negotiations to continue.
The president made the call while receiving some governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), legislators and political leaders at his residence in Daura, Katsina State, Monday.
He assured that the government understood their position and that negotiations would continue with students in lecture halls.
ASUU has been on strike since February to protest the federal government’s refusal to fulfill the agreements with the union since 2009.
Buhari, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, expressed worry that the hiatus would have generational consequences on families, the educational system, and the future development of the country.
He said the strike had already taken a toll on the psychology of parents, students and other stakeholders, throwing up many moral issues that already beg for attention.
Buhari said the future of the country rested on the quality of educational institutions and education.
“We hope that ASUU will sympathise with the people on the prolonged strike. Truly, enough is enough for keeping students at home. Don’t hurt the next generation for goodness sake,” he said.
The president called on all well-meaning Nigerians, particularly those close to the leaders and members of the association, to intervene in persuading the lecturers to reconsider their position.
Buhari said students from Nigerian universities would be faced with the challenge of competing with others in a highly connected and technology-driven workspace, and keeping them at home only deprives them of time, skill and opportunities to be relevant on the global stage.
“Colonial type education was geared towards producing workers in government. Those jobs are no longer there. Our young people should get education to prepare them for self-employment. Now education is for the sake of education.
“Through technology, we are much more efficient. We should encourage our children to get education, not only to look for government jobs,” he added.
NUPENG asks FG to act
The president spoke on a day the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) threatened to join the nationwide strike if the ASUU crisis was not immediately resolved.
The union while expressing worry and concern over the prolonged strikes by university unions, condemned what it called the “lackadaisical attitude” of the federal government towards finding a lasting solution to the crisis.
President of NUPENG, Williams Akporeha, and the General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale, said the strikes by ASUU, Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) had paralysed universities for months.
The union asked the federal government to “immediately address and resolve all demands of ASUU, NASU and SSANU without any further delay to avert national solidarity actions from our members across the country
