July 26, (THEWILL) – Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel has expressed concern over the prolonged strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), saying that any system that cannot ensure continuity is a loser.
The governor stated this on Tuesday, while responding to workers who were in the state government house on protest rally, in solidarity with the striking University workers.
Emmanuel, who was represented by the Secretary to the state government (SSG), Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem, said as long as the strike continues, there would be negative ripples including capital flight of sending children to other countries, as well as insecurity, considering that majority of the youths in the country are idle.
“Whoever feels that education is too expensive, let him try ignorance. Mr President, your remark about the fact that our boys and girls are idling at home, it is far more than that.
“Now within our socio-Economic system, we have those who are retiring, and those who are being employed. The power of knowledge is what makes the human society to develop from one generation to another, and you cannot fool around with knowledge because as you acquire knowledge, you transmit same in the universities.
“So, we agree with you that you are a loser when you cannot ensure continuity. Those who are graduating and those who are coming in. So by this strike we are delaying those who are coming into the universities and other tertiary institutions. By this strike we are delaying those who would have gone on NYSC, to serve the country.
“By this same strike we are discouraging parents from sending their children to Schools in Nigeria. We forget to mention flight of capital, caused by many Nigerians sending their children abroad because of fear of one strike or the other, caused by inability to address the problems facing the educational system.
“As long as the strike persists, children who have completed their SS3, will not be able to further their education. An idle man is a devil’s workshop. And you can also imagine an idle man who is also a hungry man, it is a readily available instrument to be used by the devil. We cannot afford that as a nation. So we are your friend and partner in this struggle”
In his address, which was presented to the state governor for onward delivery to the President of the Federal Republic, the chairman of the Akwa Ibom state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), Comrade Sunny James, expressed disappointment over the inability of the Federal government to meet the demands of the University workers for over five months.
“Comrades, as we know, for a while now, Nigerian workers who are affiliate of Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, Non Academic Staff Union, and NATS have being on strike.
“Negotiations have been going back and forth on the matter with the federal government and the negotiations have not brought any result therefore NLC decided to intervene for these reliable affiliates”, he maintained.
He, however, expressed disappointment that the federal government is yet to constitute a body to resolve the impasse months after it agreed to do so in a meeting with the NLC.
According to him, “arising from a meeting held with FG on 30th of June, 2022, it was resolved that the FG should set up a team with the view to resolving the impasse. Surprisingly several months have passed nothing has been done and Mr President had in his Sallah message to Nigeria workers said enough is enough, just a week ago the president gave two weeks marching order to Ministry of Education to resolve ASUU, NASU, SSANU and NAT matter, one week after nothing has happened, that is why NLC decided to deliver this letter to the governor with assurances that he will talk to them and tell them to resolve this matter.
“This particular protest is in three tranches, this is the first tranche, the second one is coming very soon which will take the form of a three-day nationwide strike, then the third one if others are not achieved in a significant record time, NLC has put everything on ground to embark on a full fledge strike and they are going to be done concurrently.”
He lamented that the change Nigerians craved for has come in a drastic dimensions, leaving them worse that than what was experienced before.
“For those of you that looked for change, we have experienced change in drastic dimensions, the change has come to be worse than what we saw”, he stressed.
The protesters, who walked in a slow procession chanted solidarity songs and displayed placards of various inscriptions, some of which read, “stop proliferation of universities,”sign and implement all nogotiated agreements,”IPPIS a fraud” bring back our students to the University etc.
