Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant, Public Communications to Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate, says former President Goodluck Jonathan has lectured the current administration on how to resolve the strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
ASUU has been on strike since February but on Wednesday, the National Industrial Court ordered the striking lecturers to end their seven-month-old industrial action.
The Federal Government had, in an interlocutory motion filed by its counsel, James Igwe, asked that the university lecturers be compelled by the court to go back to work pending the resolution of their demands for better working conditions.
Ruling on the interlocutory injunction, the trial Judge, Justice Polycarp Hamman, restrained ASUU from continuing with the industrial action pending the determination of the suit filed against ASUU by the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, ASUU has directed its members across the country to remain calm and resolute.
In a memo by the Lagos zone coordinator of the union, Dr Adelaja Odukoya, to members of the zone, President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, said there is no cause for alarm.
Reacting to this development on Wednesday night while featuring on Trust TV’s political programme, Daily Politics, Shaibu said: “If I were a lecturer, I’ll just go to class, cross my legs and watch the students.
“It can’t resolve the issue the issue. They’re only scratching the surface and that goes to show that they have no capacity to resolve this problem. Of course, this has been a recurring decimal. But then it’s been better handled…. The other day, President Goodluck Jonathan, offered free tutorials to them on how to manage the strike.
“The danger is this; It’s not just about ASUU. It the Nigerian public. I want to be incumbent on ASUU to educate and sensitise the mass of our people, the more on their demands. It’s not about lecturers salaries. It’s about the collapse of the educational system. It’s about the decayed educational system.
“We have over 1million 1.9million students minimum that write JAMB every year in the last three years, more than less than 1.9 million. And the current capacity of our universities is oscillate between 250 to 400,000 students, meaning about 1.4million students who would write JAMB cannot even have access to university education.
“Where does that leave us? We now have one called issues of educational tourism in Ghana. Some even go to Benin. when they go there, they contribute to the economy of Benin Republic, contribute to the economy of Ghana. These students rent houses, they pay school fees, they buy food and do other things. And tomorrow we begin to complain that nothing’s working in Nigeria. How can things work?”
