President Muhammadu Buhari should intervene and end the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Professor Haruna Yerima has said.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, the don said the industrial action is taking its toll on students, parents, the country as well as the administration itself. “It is time for Mr President to personally intervene and end the strike once and for all. President Buhari is known as a lover of education for decades. The strike is both staining and straining his aura as a father, guardian and leader who is passionate about education,” he said.
Professor Yerima, who represented Biu, Shani, Bayo, Kwaya/Kusar and Shani Federal Constituency of Borno State at the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007, said the lingering industrial action is overshadowing the tremendous investments the APC administration did over the years.
“Whatever it takes, the President must intervene. He can’t remain aloof. We are in an election year. It is a fact that the APC administration has invested heavily on infrastructure in the educational sector. But that feat is being enveloped by this ASUU strike. It is time to end it,” the APC chieftain has said.
Professor Yerima said it is clear that the efforts of the President’s lieutenants in ending the strike is not enough that is why it lingers. “With this trend, it’s apparent that President Buhari’s silence over the strike can’t be golden any longer. His statement in Daura during the Sallah break was impressive and we thought by now, the crisis must have ended,” he said.
The ruling party chieftain said Buhari must not allow the remaining eight months he has “to be ridden by needless industrial crisis like the ASUU strike. He has the capacity to intervene and end it. Let him do that now. I don’t want ASUU strike to be the President’s valedictory to Nigerian parents and students.”
The university teachers began a one-month warning strike on February 14, 2022, and extended it thrice after the Federal Government failed to meet up with its demands.
Some of the demands of ASUU include: revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability.
The Federal Government agreed to inject a total of N1.3 trillion into public universities, both state and federal, in six tranches, starting in 2013 after the union decried the deplorable state of the institutions.
In 2013, the government was to release N200 billion and release N220 billion each year for another five years.
After releasing the first tranche, the government stopped releasing the funds. In 2017, it, however, released N20 billion. In 2020, it promised to release N25 billion.
ASUU rejected the offer, insisting on N110 billion, which is 50 percent of the N220 billion that it demanded, but the government declined, citing paucity of funds.
