Speakers, Ize-Iyamu, Ihonvbere seek immediate end to FG-ASUU impasse

Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures has urged the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to end the eight-month strike at the ivory towers.

Its chairman and speaker of Bauchi State House of Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman, said the development was negatively affecting university education in Nigeria and portends great danger to the country.

He stated that keeping students at home for this long period was exposing them to social ills.

“As parents, we are not happy that up to this moment, government and ASUU couldn’t resolve the issues that led to the strike.

“Students are at home for eight months. This is making them vulnerable to all sorts of manipulation, including criminal activities and drug abuse,” Suleiman said.

He added: “Both government and union should consider future of our children. We should be mindful of the future of our country. This strike is spelling doom for the future of Nigeria. University education is too important to be handled this way.”

On the planned nationwide protest threat by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), the chairman warned that the most populous black nation cannot afford a repeat of the #EndSARS demonstrations that claimed huge lives as well as private and public properties across the country.

While urging caution, the association sued for dialogue as a way out.

IN the same vein, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the recently concluded governorship election in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has appealed to the current administration to urgently resolve the matter to avoid more harm on the academic calendar that had been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

BESIDES, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Universal Basic Education, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, has blamed the incessant industrial action on government’s failure to respect agreements.

Speaking at the inauguration of Emma’s ICT Academy (Codekid Nigeria) yesterday in Abuja, Ize-Iyamu noted that “it is a disaster to allow university lecturers to go on strike”, adding that the #EndSARS protest was worsened by idleness of students.

On his part, Ihonvbere argued that the nation’s brain drain “is essentially a function of dislocation of the educational system.”
He, however, appealed to the combatants to resolve the crisis in the interest of the nation.