President Muhammadu Buhari has again for the third time in three months appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its six months ongoing strike. This call was made by Buhari's Chief of staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari on 12th August 2022 at the maiden Special Convocation Ceremony and conferment of Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters on the Chairman of Oriental Energy Resources Limited, Alhaji Muhammadu Indimi, by the University of Maiduguri.
“I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the ASUU to reconsider its stance to call off their 7 months old strike, as students and their parents are desirous to see that schools are reopened. The nation cannot afford long interruption of higher education of the youths and wouldn’t undermine the development of the nation’s human capital in a strictly competitive world,” the President stressed.
Buhari stated that the appeal was solely based on students who have been away from school to return to the classroom. More so, he added that despite the security challenges, his administration has made visible achievements in the security sector.
He insisted that such prolonged interruption in the education sector was undermining efforts at developing the nation’s human resources.
The president said: “It’s more appropriate that we say something about this ASUU strike because we are celebrating Alhaji Indimi who is celebrated hugely for the advancement of quality education not only in this country. “In this regard, I want to urge ASUU to call off the strike and return to the classroom.”
Recall on 11th July Buhari had urged the striking university lecturers to suspend the strike in the interest of the students who had been at home for more than four months at the time. He made a similar call at the 19th National Productivity Day and conferment of the National Productivity Order of Merit Award (NPOM) to some eminent Nigerians on May 13.
The president had during a meeting with the government agencies involved in the negotiation with ASUU a few weeks ago given the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, a 14 days ultimatum to resolve the dispute with the union. The ultimatum ended last week with the union extending the strike which commenced on February 14 for another 30 days.
