Onyinye-Gandhi Chukwunyere, the Spokesperson for the campaign group of the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, has condemned what the group alleged as moves by the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government to blackmail the Academic Staff Union Universities into submission.
The group, in a statement on Tuesday, signed by Chukwunyere, stated that a “report published in some media on August 22, 2022, that the APC government under the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is considering proscribing ASUU as a way of ending the prolonged strike by the union is outrageous.”
“While the APC’s contempt for the education of Nigerians is well documented, its reported threat to employ draconian and unconstitutional measures to blackmail and bully ASUU into submission is a new low.
“The crisis in the nation’s educational sector merely reflects the larger, multi-sectoral failures of the APC whose hold on power in the last seven years has been an absolute nightmare for the Nigerian people. Like its predecessors in the Peoples Democratic Party, the APC prefers to attack the messenger rather than address the message. It has repeatedly demonstrated its unwillingness to curb profligacy, stop the serial looting of our treasury, and direct resources to properly fund education and reposition the sector as the primary driver of national development.
“For us in the AAC, and our presidential candidate, Sowore, the reported threat is ill-conceived and short-sighted, and we urge the Nigerian people to prepare to resist it. It is the clearest indicator yet, that the APC is bereft of the creativity required to solve critical national problems. It is unfit to govern, and must be rejected at the polls in 2023.
“We express our unflinching solidarity with ASUU as they fight to defend access to public education. We recognise them as indispensable allies, and we will work with them to implement our thorough plan of aggressive investment in education as a reliable springboard to a new, secure, and prosperous Nigeria.
“The AAC and candidate, Sowore believes that investment in public education is one of the primary responsibilities of any serious government, and it is a smart strategy to fast-track national development. Therefore, the AAC government will spare no effort to ensure that every Nigerian man, woman, and child has access to world-class education within Nigerian classrooms, laboratories, and libraries. We will not shirk the responsibility of providing our people the tools to develop their minds and prepare themselves for the challenging task of building a new nation with the promise of true liberty, security, and prosperity for all.
“We urge Nigerians to reject these failed parties and politicians at the polls in 2023, and vote overwhelmingly for Sowore and other AAC candidates, so that we can immediately commence the task of national redemption,” the statement read.
The press reports that ASUU had on Monday, February 14, 2022 embarked on a strike.
The union had demanded for the renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement; release of revitalisation funds for universities; deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers; release of earned allowances; and the release of the white paper report of the visitation panels to universities.
The last meeting of the union with the FG ended in deadlock, while the union’s National Executive Council is expected to decide on the strike on Monday.
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