Parents are being urged to join the federal government in pleading with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its continuing strike by Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity.
Shehu made the request Thursday, August 6, in Abuja, Nigeria, at the 11th graduation ceremony of Glisten International Academy. His plea comes just 24 hours after Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, urged parents to implore ASUU to call off their nearly 6-month-old strike.
Since February 14, ASUU has remained on strike to protest the federal government’s failure to enact its demands. On August 1, the union announced a further one-month extension “to give government more time to satisfactorily settle all the outstanding issues.”
Shehu responded to the academic union’s latest decision to extend their strike by saying that the government is doing its part and that parents could help by contacting ASUU.
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“It came like a bolt in the sky. We are shocked because it came at a time the president is giving full commitment to resolving the ASUU strike and having the students and teachers back in the school.
The extension, I believe, should not have been done because the spirit in which the government now is trying to resolve the problems of ASUU is such that there should also be a benefit of the doubt in favour of the government on the part of ASUU.
The strike is unnecessarily extended and this should not have been the case. I want to advise parents to join the government in begging ASUU to end this strike, as the government is doing its part and parents are worried and they should start talking to ASUU.”he said
Shehu, whose son graduated from Glisten International Academy, also urged the kids to make wise decisions regarding their continued study.
“For the graduating students, I want to say that they have a major decision to make, which is going to the next level in their education pursuit. You can see that a lot of foreign institutions are extending invitations to the students at discounted rates to study overseas.
I will say that Nigerian universities are equally as good and even better, and we are hoping that we will be able to stabilise the university education in the country, so that parents don’t have to pay exorbitantly to educate their children abroad. University education in Nigeria should be the best for our children.” he said
