A former chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Port Harcourt Branch, Dr. Austen Sado, has described the call for the ban of the union as absurd and irrational.
A member of the National Caucus of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Sam Nkire, had asked the Federal Government to consider banning ASUU, alleging that the union had stifled the development of tertiary education and “trying to bring the government and the society to its knees.”
But Sado, who spoke in an interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, expressed shock that a party leader could call for the prescription of a union as a result of a problem caused by the government.
Further describing Nkire’s act as an exhibition of ignorance, the former ASUU chief said Nkire’s statement showed the dilemma of leadership Nigerians had to endure.
“I am shocked to my marrow that a party leader could say this. To suggest that a way to solve a problem caused by the government’s irresponsibility is to ban a group of people that are asking the government to do the right thing is absurd.
“I have never been shocked by any exhibition of ignorance to that extent. That tells you the quality of leadership in Nigeria. It tells you the thinking behind our developmental quest.
“This person went to school and understands what is required to fund education, so that you can enhance and equip your people for developmental purposes, and you think that the way to achieve that is to silence a group of people that are holding you accountable to your irresponsibility. Nothing could be more absurd and irrational than that,” he said.
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