Strike: Emulate Jonathan, engage ASUU personally

Mon, Sep 5, 2022
By editor
2 MIN READ

Politics

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to end the lingering Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, strike, by emulating the strategy adopted by former Predident Goodluck Jonathan in November 2013, during which he personally presided over the meeting with the aggrieved lecturers and had the knotty issues resolved. 

Convener of the Middle Belt Movement for Justice and Peace, MBMJP, Joe Bukka, who gave the advise, yesterday, in Makurdi, said it had become imperative for the President to personally step into the matter to have it resolved, in the interest of all parties, without further delay. 

He said: “The former President Jonathan’s strategy paid off in November 2013, when the strike, at the time, lasted for four months and it became obvious that Nigerians resented the government for allowing the strike to linger for that long when the negotiators, on the part of the government, failed to make any headway. 

“The then President Jonathan rose to the occasion, he summoned all the relevant government functionaries and the leadership of ASUU to a meeting which he personally presided over. 

“He took charge of the negotiations in a sitting that lasted about 12 hours and at the end of that meeting agreements were reached, immediate actions taken and the strike was called off to the relief of all Nigerians. 

“We urge President Buhari to adopt the same strategy at this time to have the strike called off because it is a national embarrassment that our public universities have remained shut for this long and our leaders are busy talking politics without taking cognisance of the fact that a country is in trouble when its human capital development is stagnated. 

“That is the implication of having this strike linger for this long after the close to one year that was lost in 2021 due to COVID-19 and the same ASUU dispute.”

-Vanguard

KN

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