ASUU strike: Borrow money to pay up, don’t gamble with our future – Adebanjo urges FG

Elder statesman and a chieftain of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, has expressed worries over the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Adebanjo said if necessary, the Federal Government should borrow money to meet the demands of the union so students could go back to school.
He observed that the ongoing strike action was equivalent to gambling with the future of students because of FG’s refusal to implement the agreement it entered with the union few years back.

His words, ‘‘If it means borrowing money to sanitise the university system, the Federal Government should do it. What the people (ASUU) are saying is that the strike is not only about money but to revive the nation’s university education to make it world class. Whatever it will cost the government to stop the strike, it must do it. We should not gamble with the future of our future leaders’’.
He further hinted that ‘‘For you (government) to tell them to come and renegotiate after you failed to implement the agreement you made with them in 2009 is not right. Things are not done that way. How are we sure you will fulfil the terms of any new agreement you make with the union?’’
The Afenifere chief lamented that 53 years after Nigeria’s independent, the education sector was not up to standard yet.
ASUU embarked on strike since July 1 to protest the non-implementation of the key issues contained in the 2009 agreement it made with the FG.