Farouk Lawan
Former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Education, Mr. Farouk Lawan, has added his voice to the ongoing war between the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and the federal government.
Lawan had on Thursday advised the Federal Government against signing any agreement it would not honour with the striking lecturers.
Lawan, while lamenting the falling state of Nigeria’s universities; called on the warring parties to return to the negotiation table.
According to him, “What we hear is that ASUU has pulled out of the talks to end the ongoing strike; this will only worsen the situation. Both parties should return to continue with the talks.
“Frequent strikes undermine the quality and standard of our education”, Lawan told reporters in Abuja.
He noted that one of the major setbacks for government/ASUU relations over the years had been the signing of agreements that the government was not ready to honour.
The lawmaker said, “Government often rushes into signing agreements because it is desperate to get lecturers back to the classroom.
“This is what has happened to the 2009 agreement, which is the cause of the current strike.
“Before then, there were other agreements up to 2009 and they always bordered on the lack of will to honour them.”
Speaking further, Lawan advised ASUU to find new ways of getting the government to honour its agreements or to adequately fund the nation’s universities “without necessarily going on strike.”
The ongoing strike, which is now over two months, has dragged on because government said it could not afford to pay the money demanded by the striking lectures.
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