ASUU STRIKE UPDATE

Return To Classroom, Group Tells ASUU

An Abuja-based group, the Transformation Agenda Solidarity Forum, has called on striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off their strike and return to the classrooms.

But a chieftain off the All Progressives Congress in Kwara State, Mohammed Belgore (SAN), has called on the Federal Government to honour agreement with the lecturers.

The group said in a communiqué signed by Deputy Chairman of the group, Dr. Aboki Zhawa, that the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, had responded positively to the issues raised by the striking lecturers.

They urged ASUU to call off the strike in the interest of the Nigerian students, who the group claimed, suffered the adverse effect of the lingering industrial action.

“The Forum flays the continuous stay at home by university lecturers despite the efforts of Mr. President who has sufficiently responded to the demands of ASUU.

“The forum calls on ASUU to return to class immediately in the interest of our children who are the direct victims of this unnecessarily prolonged strike action,” the communiqué read in part.

But Belgore in a statement by his media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, appealed to the government to consider the students who are more adversely affected by the strike.

Belgore, who was the Kwara State governorship candidate in 2011 under the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, said the future was bleak unless Nigeria jerked up its commitment to educate the Nigerian child.

“As a citizen of this country and a politician who shares the view that the Nigerian child, irrespective of their backgrounds, should have access to quality education, I align myself with the calls on the government to fulfil its promise made to the teachers in the agreement signed way back in 2009.