New Telegraph

Indefinite Strike: ASUU out to destroy public varsities –NANS

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has alleged that the recent declaration of an indefinite strike by university lecturers six months after keeping students at home was a move to collapse the public university system and promote private universities in the country. NANS, in a statement signed by its President, Comrade Sunday Asefon, yesterday in Abuja described the decision by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as unpatriotic, unnecessary, wicked and detrimental to the development of the nation and its tertiary education system.

He said: “Such a decision was easy for ASUU because many of their leaders do not have their wards in public universities and still keep employment at various private universities around the country and as such not affected by their attempt to collapse the sector for their selfish and inconsiderate gains. “ASUU has succeeded initially to masquerade their strike action as an action in the interest of the tertiary education system in Nigeria and in the interest of the teeming Nigerian students, events of recent weeks have therefore made it abundantly clear that ASUU has an ulterior motive which is to collapse university education system in Nigeria and systematically promote private universities where many of them have their children, stakes and perhaps where they receive payment for the job of collapsing public universities in Nigeria.

“We, therefore, call on the Federal Government to investigate the leadership of ASUU with the aim of unravelling their motivation for their insistence on collapsing the public university system in Nigeria. “The declaration of the indefinite strike after virtually all ASUU demands had been met must be considered an act of educational terrorism and economic sabotage, government must act fast and be ruthless in dealing with anyone found culpable to serve as deterrence to others who might want to hold the nation at ransom and perpetuate systemic terror attack on the nation.” Asefon maintained that the lecturer’s insistence on payment of six months’ arrears for the entire period of the strike before they could call off the strike was insensitive, selfish, inconsiderate, and uncharitable.

It said: “The six months are periods of no work, we, therefore, encourage the government to use every available legal window available to it and ensure that ASUU does not kill our tertiary education system. “We call on the state governments to forthwith liaise with the Vice- Chancellors of state institutions to announce the resumption of academic activities and grant the Vice-Chancellors the authority to enforce the resumption as state universities should never have joined the strike in the first place. Government must maintain its position as an employer and use its power to hire and fire effectively at this time to save our education system from the total collapse planned by ASUU. “We, therefore, plead with ASUU leadership in state institutions that had been so ridiculed and labelled quacks by the National President of ASUU to toe the path of honour and save their institutions from the verge of total collapse by calling off the strike.”

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