President Goodluck Jonathan has pleaded with the striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call-off their four-month old industrial action. Jonathan made the plea while commissioning the Faculty of Engineering Complex building of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti yesterday. Jonathan urged ASUU members to review their industrial action and go back to class. The president said his regime was working assiduously to meet the lecturers’ demands. Jonathan, who was the special guest of honor at the first convocation ceremony at the University, acknowledged that the country is facing a lot of challenges, assuring that his government was poised to solving the problem confronting the education sector. ”Even to those of us holding political offices, those in the health sector, the police, the army, the Department of State Service(DSS), the thinking out there is that we are operating in the best environment. This is not true. ’If we all decide to embark on long strike ,definitely, we will all ground the nation.” The president reasoned that if ASUU members have genuine and patriotic mind towards pressing home their demands, four months was enough in achieving this. ”I urge every patriotic Nigerian to plead with ASUU to suspend their strike action and resume class. * L-R: Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; Vice Chancellor, Afe Babalola University, ABUAD, Prof. Sidi Osho; founder, ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola; President Goodluck Jonathan; and wife of the founder, ABUAD, Mrs. Modupe Babalola, at the Commissioning of the Ultra-Modern Engineering Faculty Building of the University, in Ado-Ekiti… on Saturday. ”I promise to work with all Nigerians,what ever inadequacies we have with education,we are seriously working towards solving it. ”ASUU should temper their anger with patriotism. ”Long strike will definitely ground our educational sector. ”If you are talking to government and government is not listening, or government is not cooperating with you, that is a different thing entirely. The president promised that his government was steadily trying to solve the problems confronting other sectors of the economy ,including education by providing infrastructural facilities. He commended the founder of Afe Babalola University for establishing a first class privately owned university. On the demand of the state government on the establishment of airport and federal secretariat, Jonathan said N400million had been earmarked in this year’s budget for the airport. Speaking earlier, Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, made a plea on the establishment of an airport in the state. Fayemi noted that the state government had paid part of the N320million counterpart funding for the establishment of the airport. The governor noted that Ekiti was the only state out of those created in 1996 that is yet to have a federal secretari
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 19:44:13 +0000
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