Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has urged the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to axe its over five months lingering strike.
The governor called on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to shift grounds in negotiating with the education body.
Umahi, who made this call while addressing the board of Trustees of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund, NPTF, during in a courtesy call at his office in Abakaliki, also lamented the increasing insecurity in the country and the education and health systems in Nigeria.
According to him: “Our basic problem in the country remains security, health and education. Let me say a little about the ASUU strike. I think that our educational system is improperly articulated. University education is not for everybody and that is the truth. The basic education that every country strives to attain is secondary and vocational schools.
“There is a need to review our educational system and it mustn’t be for everybody. I don’t see how we can’t sit down with ASUU leaders and iron out this ASUU strike. I have seen how painful it is for the students to sit at home instead of being in school. But there is no way the country Nigeria will go and borrow #1.1trillion to meet ASUU demands. It’s unreasonable.
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“Are ASUU’s demands genuine? yes. But we can start little by little. There must be a commitment on the side of both ASUU and the federal government. ASUU is not asking for this, for them to take to their house but for the betterment of our children. We can start by a fraction of that demands and have a program that we run with sincerity”
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