The terms of agreement reached in 2009 between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are not implementable, a former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Education, Farouk Lawan has said.
Speaking with newsmen on Thursday, the outspoken member of the Lower Chamber, said government was pressured to sign the agreement then so that students who had stayed longer at home could return to school.
He therefore, enjoined the Universities teachers to go back to the negotiation table with the federal government so that a more realistic agreement could be entered into and signed for implementation.
The lawmaker while urging well meaning Nigerians to appeal to the striking teachers to renegotiate and return to work in the overall interest of the nation.
“All of us certainly I believe must be concerned with the current strike that is going on and there is likely possibility that it will be a prolonged one.
“Sometime, simply because of the pressure or the determination to get students back to classes, government agrees to certain things they knew then they may not be able to meet as easily as possible.
“This time, the issues were about what were agreed upon in 2009 just as it was with the 2009 strike that had issues of previous strike embedded in it.
“As long as there is no realistic appraisal of what is attainable, then we will always continue to face these problems but we cannot continue this way.
“We all know that strikes undermine the quality of education system. Strikes equally tied to a situation that is already bad. Frequent strikes by academic unions and other unions within the university system and tertiary institutions increasingly add to this pressure”.
“That is why I have always maintained that ASUU should be more ingenious in coming up with better ways of getting government to be more committed in improving the education system without necessarily going on strike.
“Every society looks up to the universities for new ideas, and Nigeria should not be an exception. ASUU as the reservoirs of knowledge should begin to come up with new ways of getting government to do things without necessarily embarking on strikes that add to the problem that our educational system is already facing in this country”.
“I know that the educations committees of the two chambers of the national assembly have tried to broker understanding and currently there is some kind of negotiation taking place but every Nigerian should encourage ASUU to resume that negotiation so that the matter can be resolved and the lecturers can go back to classes and our children out there for us to have the opportunity of steady and stable educational system,” Lawan said.
