The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to meet with the Prof. Nimi Briggs-led Committee on negotiation, following his latest ‘enough is enough’ comments.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osekede, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Recall that the Briggs committee, which was set up by the Federal Government on June 7, is renegotiating the 2009 Agreement with ASUU and will submit its report to the Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu in three months.
Buhari had, in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, saying, “truly, enough is enough for keeping students at home.’’
He spoke while receiving governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), legislators and political leaders at his residence in Daura, Katsina State, on Monday.
Reacting to the development, Osedeke said: “I do not understand why Mr President said that ‘enough is enough’, when we are not the one delaying the students at home.
“The federal government had sent its team to negotiate with us and we have finished. Instead of coming back to us to tell us the outcome of the meeting, we are hearing this.
“If you set up a committee to negotiate on your behalf, and the committee has finished and they have brought the information to you to sign and then you said enough is a enough, what does this mean.’’
Also reacting, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Lagos, Dr. Adelaja Odukoya, in a statement on Tuesday, attributed the five months old strike to the inability of President Buhari’s government to resolve the issues.
He described the President’s comment as a mere wishful thinking, stressing that the struggle to reposition the public university education in Nigeria would continue.
The statement reads in part, “Mr. President, saying that enough is enough is mere wishful thinking and will not resolve the present decadence in our universities nor stop the present struggle to reposition our public universities.
“For the records, Mr. President, enough will not be enough in the struggle to reposition the public university education in Nigeria under this present administration and beyond as long as; the Nigerian public universities are reduced to a glorified secondary schools for the production of poor quality and globally uncompetitive, rejected and unemployable graduates and Nigerian academics remain one of the poorest paid scholars not only in Africa but the world.”
Recall that ASUU, on February 14, shut down all public universities, asking the FG to implement previous agreements that both parties entered into.