…says public universities are becoming “decrepit and dysfunctional.”
The Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Ekiti State University Branch, Prof Sola Afolayan, has tasked President Bola Tinubu to implement the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement to avert looming strike action.
The Union Leader also lamented on the counter-productive attitude of the Federal Government towards Nigeria’s university system.
Prof Afolayan noted that because of the nonchalant nature of the government to 2009 ASUU/FG Agreement, public universities are becoming “decrepit and dysfunctional.”
He said: “Only divine intervention can avert the looming industrial inertia in our universities. It is very unfortunate that when Chief Tinubu was agitating to rule the country, he was sometimes quoted as saying, if given the opportunity, he would not allow ASUU strike of whatever magnitude. Unfortunately, now as President, what has he been able to achieve?
“We are all parents and when our actions inject paralysis into the system we are mandated to nurture , thereby sending our students home, we also bear the brunt. This is so unfortunate for us seeming to lose from both ends. ASUU’s approach has always been that of extreme patience.
“All avenues are always employed to cry out on the systemic predicament of our public universities and their workers to the ears of several governments, but the cry has always fallen on the deaf ears and we may be moving towards another action time.”
The ASUU Chieftain therefore advised that Tinubu should be bold enough to address ASUU’s barrage of demands always jettisoned since failure to do this is an invitation for another regime of paralysis which will re-sound the knell of instalmental death of the public universities which had started since 2009.