Follow Us on Google
By Gabriel Dike
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Friday expressed hope that the incoming administration of Senator Bola Tinubu would resolve the outstanding issues, which led to series of strikes.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, gave a hint of the expectation at the 22nd National Delegates Conference (NDC) held at the University of Jos with the theme: “Crisis of State Challenges and Development”.
He added: “It is our hope that the incoming administration will consider all the issues and resolve them comprehensively for the benefit of the Nigeria University System and Nigeria as a country.”
According to him, the NDC is holding at a critical period in our university system and the Nation in general.
Osodeke said since the election of the present principal officers in May 2021at Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka, the union has undergone a lot of struggles, tribulations, and threats from agents of government, especially the Ministry of Labour and Employment headed by Dr. Chris Ngige.
He saluted the resilience of members and their families in the face of an unequalled regime of onslaught against th union, adding, “the despicable efforts to annihilate ASUU brought out the best in us and reinforced the aphorism: A people united cannot be defeated.
He warned: “Let us remember that the battle is not yet over. Hence at this conference, all the commissions must deliberate and come up with innovative strategies for reinventing our struggle for the NUS and Nigeria as a Country.
“The arena for the struggle appears to have shifted to the Judiciary (the Nigeria Industrial Count) and we thank our colleagues in the legal profession who have risen to the challenge.”
ASUU president said the last eight years of the outgoing administration President Mohammadu Buhari have been the worst in the march towards a holistic development of the nation.
Osodeke disclosed that the period of the last eight years has seen the country moving at the fastest speed to the precipice in almost every facet of nationhood.
“The flashpoints of this national decay have been in the near-total collapse of education and health sectors, insecurity, cacophonous banking policies that suffocated the ordinary Nigerians, scandalously expensive general elections but which have left most Nigerians dissatisfied just as the previous ones had done, decay of public infrastructure, the ever-escalating incidence of corruption and the enveloping of majority of Nigerians in unprecedented level of penury, he stated.
In his goodwill message, the Borno State Governor, who was represented by the Vice Chancellor, Borno State University, Prof. promised to bring ASUU and the Federal Government to resolve the face-off between the two parties.
Chairman of the NDC and Vice Chancellor of University of Jos, Prof. said without ASUU some public universities would not be where they are today.
He said what ASUU is fighting for, is for the betterment of the Nigerian University System and the nation, noting, we need to fight for the continuous existence of public univeMay 19 at 4:50 PM.
