A presidential aspirant under the platform of the New Nigeria People’s Party, Olufemi Ajadi, has appealed to the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities to end the ongoing strike in Nigerian public universities.
Ajadi said the plea became necessary following the effects of the strike on the students and other parties involved.
He made this known via a statement made available to The PUNCH on Wednesday.
The statement quoted him as saying, “Check all other progressive countries around the world, have you heard that university lecturers are on strike and students forced on recess for one month, two months, three and there is no solution?
“Nothing should justify it, and the earlier the government found a solution, the better”.
Ajadi said it was a shame that the Nigerian education sector had become synonymous with strikes, sometimes forcing undergraduates to spend five or more years for courses meant for four years.
He added, “Sometimes, we wonder why there is so much violence, so much robbery in the country; this is one reason.
“We all know that young ones like exploring and that with their full potential, a dangerous thing to do is to keep their minds idle.
“What the strike is forcing on these ones, is push them to tinker with alternative and negative tendencies.”
According to him, he had already worked out a sustainable financing system for the Nigerian education sector in his manifesto, including an incentive-based rewarding plan for university lecturers.
He said, “It is difficult to think of advancing as a country when you have not prepared your education sector.
“If you look around the world, that is why many of the developed countries are ahead of us in Africa.
“With the resources available to us as a country, our education system should be best. This is my desire as a political office holder.
“It is one of the agenda that we would implement as a party in power.”
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