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Prof.Emmanuel Osodeke.
ASUU President
Abuja/Lokoja.
As university students block Lagos-Ibadan road and motorists lament,the National President of the Academic Staff Universities Union (ASUU), Prof.Emmanuel Osodeke,says the union is willing to end its seven-month-old strike.
He gave the promise in Abuja on Thursday at a National Town Hall Meeting on Tertiary Education tagged: ‘The Locked Gates of our Citadels – A National Emergency.’
Osodeke, however, said that the call off of the lingering strike could only be a reality, if all the concrete agreements were reached with the Federal Government on the contending issues that prompted the strike.
He urged the Federal Government to have a change of heart for the sake of Nigerian students who he noted remained at idle at home for the past seven months.
ASUU said:“If the government loves this country, these children and their parents, then, they should come to the table and let us resolve these issues in one day.
“Just as we did in 2014, they should come and ensure that we do that, we can even have the meeting openly so that Nigerians will see what we are discussing.”
Some students and parents who reflected on ASUU’s feeling on the strike in a separate interview with our Correspondent in Lokoja on Thursday described it as a sign of good omen towards ending the strike, soon.
“If ASUU which has stuck to its gun all this while to continue the strike can come out to invite the federal government for dialogue, then governnent should take this serious and return to negotiable table for amicable solution on the strike,” a parent,Alhaji Yahaha Mohammed urged.
For the students, the need to end the strike cannot be over emphasised, given the trauma they have been subjected to for the past seven months.
“As far as I am concerned, ASUU and Federal government should please end this strike.
“No doubt, the strike has brought a lot of set back to the realisation of our educational ambition and the quality of educatuon in the country is being threatened, this is not good for Nigeria,”Miss Zainab Otori, a 300 level student, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria said.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
