By Ismail Auwal
President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, has said that the union’s strike will continue until Federal Government (FG) is ready to agree to their terms.
Osodeke while speaking at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in Osun State, during the union’s congress said they will go as far as they can on the strike to the point the FG are ready to agree to their demands.
The ASUU president said the current strike by members of the union is preparing today’s students to make sacrifices for the coming generations to have basic amenities and have easy access to quality education.
He said,“The affected students are making sacrifices for development in the schools so that future generations can benefit. For anything to develop, some people will make sacrifices. You will agree with me that Nigerian universities are on the verge of collapsing. This struggle is not just for them but the future generations.”
Osodeke alerted the nation to exodus of Nigerian lecturers in large numbers as a result of the ongoing strike.
He said “Large numbers of lecturers have moved out not because they hate this country but because of the way they are being treated. There’s no country in the world that their academics will go on strike and you think the best weapon to use is to seize their salary.”
“When we were on the strike, lecturers in the United Kingdom (UK) also went on strike. It didn’t take two days for them to resolve it.”
“When Ghanaian lecturers went on strike, they resolved it. But here, they felt nonchalant. Do you know why? It is because they (government officials) have no commitments. Their children are not here.
