The Senate
has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to call off its
ongoing strike in the interest of the students and Nigerians in general.
Jibrin Barau, Chairman, Senate
Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, made the appeal while
addressing journalists on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that while the Senate
sympathised with the union, its members should call off the strike while
negotiating with the federal government towards finding lasting solution to the
problem.
Mr. Barau said the Senate, in a
letter sent to it by ASUU, learnt that part of the grievance was lack of
confidence in the committee set up by the federal government to re-negotiate
the 2009 agreement.
The lawmaker recalled that when
the union declared warning strike earlier this year, the Senate intervened and
ensured that the problem did not linger.
He said that ASUU did not report
back to the Senate on the difficulties it had in the re-negotiation with the
committee before embarking on the strike.
He urged the union to re-consider
its position and return to the re-negotiation to save the students, parents and
the entire nation the negative effects that would result from the action.
Mr. Barau assured that the
committee would monitor the settlement process between ASUU and the committee
set up by the federal government to ensure amicable resolution of the problem.
He said:
“Let me say that we are very concerned about what is happening in our
universities.
“The Senate and indeed, the
National Assembly, has been in the forefront of making sure that we act swiftly
whenever it is necessary to nip in the bud any problem that is rearing its
head.
“I want to say that it was the
reason why we decided to intervene immediately when the warning strike action
was about to take place and we did all our best to bring the two teams together
to negotiate.
“That was what led to the setting
up of the Wale Babalakin committee.
“ASUU raised issues that had to do
with their allowances and part of it was captured in the supplementary budget
that we passed as of that time.
“In the subsequent budgets, some
of these areas were also taken care of.”
Asked if the Senate would
promulgate law to bar Nigerians from taking their children outside the country
to study, Mr. Barau said that such law would not be in the best interest of
Nigeria.
“It is something that we know will
not be good for our country.
“We know that it is always good to
mingle with people from other parts of the world when it comes to the issue of
education.
You cannot be an island to
yourself; that “you will remain here in Nigeria and say you would not want to
interface with others.
“It is not something that has been
done in any part of the world.
“You are
aware that students from Cameroon, Niger and other parts of the world come
here.
“We have exchanged students who
come from even the European nations to this country.
“You must have that interaction.
What we should say is this: we should make sure that we develop universities
and educational institutions to the level of those that we send our children
to.
“That is something that should be
done. But saying that students should not go to other countries, that I think
is not going to be good for us,” he said.
(NAN)
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