The National Youth Council of Nigeria NYCN says the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU strike is no longer in the interest of Nigerian students.
National President of the Nation’s apex youth organization ,Comrade Abdulahi Abdulmajeed in a statement said neither ASUU nor government will lose but the Nigerian youths are always at the losing end.
“Every time there is ASUU strike in Nigeria, neither ASUU nor government will lose, but the Nigerian youths are always at the losing end. The ASUU after they achieve some or all their demands call off their strike and come back to campus with their salary intact, meanwhile, what the students lose they cannot regain.
“Afterwards, ASUU settles down to enjoy its salary improvement while students are left to battle with the unpalatable consequences of their actions such as elongation of our academic tenure and years in school, our academic flow experience obstruction, mourning of our dead colleagues and tending to the incapacitated ones who would have been involved in road accidents when they were left with the option of unwarranted travelling due to ASUU strike.”
He said the council is not in any way opposing to the demands of the University lecturers, insisting that the Nigeria education sector deserves the best from the government.
“NYCN believes that the lecturers under ASUU may have a point, it is also a fact that they are fast losing credibility in the eyes of several Nigerians because in the present trade dispute, we are beginning to feel that ASUU is putting premium on personnel entitlements and welfare issues above the issues of sectoral repositioning and improvements of infrastructure in the educational sector going by the method they have adopted.”
“The education sector in Nigeria deserves the best, we are asking for commitments on the part of the government and we are asking ASUU to be more reasonable to the plight of Nigerian youths and the wellbeing of the generality of Nigerians.
“we are not in any way opposed to the justifiable demands of ASUU, what we are opposed to is that Nigerian youths, about 30 million of them have wasted more than 100 days in their academic’s year, we have a problem with that.”
He noted that the Youth Council has the right to protect the interest of its 17 million members whom a large of them are greatly affected by the ongoing strike just as ASUU has the right to protect the interest of its members.
“Because of this constant strike, armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution have been on the rise; an idle hand is the devil’s workshop. Many of our youths are no longer employable because of the age limit many blue chip companies are setting for their employees.”
Abdulmajeed, said ASUU did not have any justification to continue with the strike since negotiations can be ongoing while the students are returned to classroom in pursuit of their education career.
He said shutting down universities in the country for a period of above hundred days would not be acceptable to the Nigerian youths.
“Our major concern as youth leaders is that every day the students are shut out of school, they are exposed further to the danger of ultimately not being useful to themselves and to the larger society. They are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the myriad of societal ills, which is already threatening the social fabrics of this country; vis-a-vis the menace of armed robbery, terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, prostitution and so many others acts capable of destabilizing this country. While ASUU remains adamant with reference to the agreement under dispute, the rot it is also nurturing by virtue of its protracted incessant strikes should also not be lost on the lecturers,” Abdulmajeed added.
