The current Academic Staff Union of Universities standoff with the federal government has continued to bother Nigerians, and as such, the country is now in dilemma with ASUU.
Fielding questions from THE RENAISSANCE NEWS Friday, the Senator representing Abia North and the Senate Chief , Orji Uzor Kalu stated this adding, “ASUU needs to come out with the Federal Goverment and trash this matter for the benefit of our children now at home.”
Kalu said based on his appeal to the relevant federal authorities to ensure that ASUU strike ends soon, his Facebook fans have been urging him to take the matter to the red chamber through a motion.
Based on that, Kalu explained, “On two occasions, the senate President and I spoke with ASUU and reached an agreement with them. We also went to the relevant ministries and talked to them and at the end, reached an agreement with them”.
However, the senator regretted “But this agreement wasn’t working because we are not in the executive arm of the government and there is no other way we could do something”.
Though he is not contesting any presidential election, but representing Nigeria as well as being an employer of labour with over 13,000 workers, the senator advised that the FG should not be playing with labour that can work well for the country, adding, “We just have to open the universities at all cost, no matter what it takes for the FG and ASUU to agree”.
“They just have to agree and it is not just a matter of tabling the issue at the National Assembly as people have been requesting. Our intervention has not been feasible because, as legislators, we only have powers of persuasion, not powers of execution” he said and expressed his wish that he is one of those that can negotiate with ASUU and do the needful.
He recalled that as the governor of Abia State for eight years, “I ran a university (Abia State University, Uturu, ABSU) for eight years that never closed for one day. ASUU were on strike, but ABSU never went on strike except once when they were sympathizing with University of Ilorin and the next day, they resumed”.
“I wish this problem of ASUU would have the ears of the president. I have spoken with the president on one-on-one on this matter and to anybody I should speak with. Nigerians know that I don’t pretend”, he said.
