Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, a human resource expert, has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to obey the judgment of the National Industrial Court.
He also urged the union not to appeal the judgment and return to the classrooms in line with democratic process and as patriotic intellectuals.
Ibrahim, a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, made the appeal in a statement he issued in Abuja on Thursday.
He called on the Federal Government not to proceed further on the suit filed in the National Industrial Court but to withdraw the case.
According to him, government should also direct for the immediate payment of outstanding salaries of ASUU members for them to resume academic activities.
Ibrahim added that alternative dispute resolution mechanism could be used to resolve the lingering crisis.
“ASUU strike that has turned to national embarrassment, is avoidable if both parties had allowed patriotism to play dominant roles in the disagreement.”
He expressed satisfaction with the promise made by President Muhammadu Buhari’s that he would hold more consultations in getting the ASUU crisis out of the way.
According to him, such a firm assurance gives a ray of hope that the crisis will soon be put behind us.
The human resource expert also appealed to the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) as stakeholders to avoid complicating the issue by making inflammable statements and organising protests as the matter was about being brought under control.
“I’m appealing to ASUU to call-off the strike and resume classes.”
He expressed optimism that the Federal Government would no doubt pay their outstanding salaries from March to September this year so that academic activities could resume without any inhibition.
He also called for resumption of negotiations immediately the strike is called-off.
According to him, Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism approach is better than litigation, as litigation has its own way of slowing down actions.
