ASUU, other strikes causing irreparable damage to education – JAMB chief
Incessant strikes by unions in the Nigerian tertiary institutions are causing irreparable damage to the nation’s educational system, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Ishaq has said.
In a separate event, the leadership of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) has explained why it has suspended its nationwide protests over the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Oloyede described the ongoing industrial strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) as unnecessary.
Oloyede said this yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State capital when JAMB in collaboration with a United States-based agency, Project Cure, presented a multi-billion naira medical equipment to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) for improved health care delivery in the country.
He added that “while acknowledging the fact that the primary responsibility of reasonable (even if not adequate) funding of public health and education institutions lies on the proprietors-the government, may I seize this opportunity to call on the employers, university-based labour unions to appreciate the irreparable damage of incessant strikes on not just the students but also the nation.”
Oloyede said that the intervention of the board in the area of health care delivery was to support the government’s efforts at addressing the huge medical infrastructural gap, added that JAMB would continue to prune down its expenses through prudent management, adoption of relevant cost-saving technology, and other efficiency-strategies to free up resources to support major stakeholders such as the tertiary health and educational institutions in order to uplift the health and educational institutions.
He said that the hospital equipment was for 12 beneficiaries’ health facilities in all the six geopolitical zones in the country.
The equipment includes an anglepoise lamp, ventilator, consumables, mattress, OG couch, gynaecology chair, treatment table, treadmill machine, crutches, ICU beds, urinary catheters, defibrillator machines, laparoscopy machines, needle and syringes, wheelchairs, Oxygen concentrator, suction machines, endoscopy machines, among others.
Why we stopped protests over lecturers’ action – NANS
NANS while explaining why it suspended its nationwide protests over the ongoing strike by the ASUU, accused the Federal Government of sabotaging the genuine protests to compel the lecturers to reopen public universities.
ASUU on February 14 embarked on a one-month strike which it later rolled into two months.
NANS Senate President, Chuks Okafor, in a statement on Friday, said: “In the area of ASUU strike. We have done our best in liaising with government agencies but we can only take the horse to the stream but you cannot force it. But as the leadership of Nigerian students, we will keep reaching out to the government and leadership of ASUU to ensure this strike is called off soonest.”
Okafor also expressed concern over the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to obey the Supreme Court judgement of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) leadership since the 9th of May, 2022.
The student body called on the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu to immediately implement the judgement of the Supreme Court on APGA leadership without bias or face mass action.
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