ASUU: CSO calls for Education Confab to resolve Crippling strike

Abiodun OBA

A civil society organisation, National Consultative Front, has called on the Federal Government to convene education confab to proffer panacea and resolve crippling universities’ workers’ strike.

Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities strike, began two months ago.

In a statement on Sunday, the group asked the FG to speedily find a lasting solution to the incessant strike action by university workers.

The statement titled, ‘NCFront, 3rd Force Leaders Call On Federal Government To Convene Education Confab To Proffer Panacea And Resolve Crippling Universities’ Workers’ Strike’, was signed by the group’s Head of Public Affairs Bureau, Tanko Yunusa.

It partly read, “Leaders of the 3rd Force Movement under the auspices of the National Consultative Front, NCFront call on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to immediately find lasting panacea in resolving the issues associated with the ongoing Universities Workers’ (ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT) strikes which commenced with an ASUU warning strike in February 2022 and have continued till date.

“We make this call in the overriding interest of our nation, but more particularly for the huge number of students, parents, academic and non- teaching staff in all federal and state-owned universities across the country who have been affected directly by this avoidable strike.

“Our youths in public universities are losing their most active and creative years due to no fault of theirs, while their parents are undergoing a painful agony of witnessing their children and resources waste away under their very noses.

“Sadly, the children of most top government officials attend private universities or study abroad; they do not feel the distress and torment of the ordinary parents which we continue to call for a law mandating State actors their nuclear families to attend only Nigerian institutions while in office.

“In addition, the government is also wasting our national resources because by the end of the strike, all academic staff and non-teaching staff that are mostly inactive now would still receive their salaries.”