Renowned legal icon, Wole Olanipekun, (SAN) and former Pro-chancellor of the Premier University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, has said that the industrial action embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU) is ill-timed.
Speaking at the weekend, during his yearly scholarship scheme for Nigerian students at his home country in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, tagged: Wole Olanipekun Scholarship Scheme, Olanipekun, said: “I wouldn’t say this is the right time for the ASSU to embark on strike action again, but at the same time I want to plead with the ASSU and federal government to look into the matter urgently.
“We must not kill education. Education leads to revival, it leads to revolution, emancipation and it also leads to freedom. Without education, there would be darkness because education brings light.
“Already education is dying in Nigeria. I want to plead with both ASUU and the government to please come together, reason together and urgently resolve your differences of our children.
“These children are the reason for our existence, the hub of our life, the anchor of our nation. A nation without a future is no nation and what do we mean by future, it is the education for these young people.
“So, I want to plead with ASUU to reason with government and the government should also reason with them. This is not the right time in the interest of those children.
“From my experience at the University of Ibadan, it is not the best thing for universities to go on strike from time to time.”
The senior advocate and current pro-chancellor, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Oyo State, also spoke about what his team on the crisis engulfing the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, (LAUTECH), is doing
“We haven’t reached any resolution on the LAUTECH crisis but we are meeting in about two weeks time to finalize on our meetings. We have made up our mind to impress it on the governments of Oyo and Osun states that the university must not die. That institution must not disintegrate, this is a basic thing we will do. ”
Olanipekun, who was eulogized by eminent Ekiti people and associates, including the Vice-Chancellor of the university of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, for giving scholarships to hundreds of Nigerian students in the 20 year-old Scheme, explained that he never nursed any political amibition.
“I don’t have any political ambition for doing this. I never wished for such. For the past 10 years, people have been asking questions, why is he doing this? Some people thought may be I wanted to be a the state governor. But I don’t have such ambition. My profession is law and that is what I love doing so much”.
The legal luminary and an elderstateman, also proffered the solution to Nigeria’s perrenial socio-economic problem, saying:” The way out for Nigeria’s woes is for all of us to join hands together and work for unity and the future of our children.
“We must all release ourselves from the bondage of self-centredness, selffishness, greed, avarice, favouristism, ethnicity, tribalism; let’s all be patriotic.”
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