IBADAN – Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has lashed out at the President of Senate Ahmed Lawan for asking protesting students not to use their protest to disrupt political activities.
Describing the statement as the height of insensitivity, chairman of University of Ibadan chapter of ASUU, Professor Ayo Akinwole, said Lawan represents the class of political vipers who were bent on destroying the future of children of the masses in the country.
As a presidential aspirant under his party, Akinwole stated that the senate president has not even shown the capacity to solve problems by not knowing the importance of education over political activities.
He said the union had lobbied the National Assembly to prevent the strike but that the legislative arm was not forthcoming, forcing ASUU to take the fate of its members in its hands.
The ASUU chairman stated that it was inconceivable for a high ranking political office holder to prioritise political activities over education, saying the consequences in their inactions had caused the country to toe the path of retrogression.
ASUU had started strike on February 14 this year to obtain new conditions of service, funding for public universities and deployment of University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), among others.
Professor Akinwole stated that those in political offices were nonchalant because for most of their children, he said, school abroad.
While urging Nigerian students to own their struggle and take over their destiny, Professor Akinwole stated that the best way to destroy a country was by destroying education which is what the ruling class among whom the senate president is pursuing with ferocious vigour .
“It is inconceivable for a senate president to see political activities as more important than having students back to learn and develop the society. ASUU informed, lobbied and appealed to the senate to avert the strike but they were not forthcoming. We see a house loyal to the ruling political elites and not to Nigeria. To this set of politicians, anything can suffer but their access to the common treasury. That is a sign of irresponsibility.