Herbalists back ASUU as students kick

Students have called on the Academic
Staff Union of Universities not to betray
them in the on-going strike. They said
they would not like a situation when the
strike would be called off without achieving anything. This came as herbalists in Oyo State
pledged their support for ASUU. According to the President of the
herbalists in the state, Dr. Arunoyemi
Asanlaye, “we are in support of ASUU on
the on-going strike”. The students in large number at a town
hall meeting, tagged, Save Public
Education Campaign, which was organised
by ASUU, UI chapter at the Trenchard Hall,
University of Ibadan Monday showed their
displeasure at the seeming docility and indifference of the Nigeria Labour
Congress calling on the labour union to
embark on solidarity strike to force
government to respond to ASUU
demands. Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye, Chairman, ASUU UI
chapter, said the union would use any
method to actualize their demands
clarified that the struggle was not about
the salaries of lecturers but the funding of
education in the country. Ajiboye said, “We are using so many
methods. We cannot tell you when to
move to Bodija Market. That is part of our
strategies. Instead of begging ASUU, the government
should declare a state of emergency in the
education sector”. Responding to the call by the students, Mr.
Bashir Olanrewaju, NLC Chairman in Oyo
State, said, “By Wednesday, we will come
out with a more proactive stance on the
strike. Though, students have called on us
to go on strike, we will not go on strike now. We will only mediate. If an affiliate
has a problem, joining it in strike will
collapse the whole system. We have never been docile about the
incident”. Prof. Remi Raji, lecturer at the Faculty of
Arts, University of Ibadan, said,
”Government should look at the NEEDS
Assessment report. It is almost a year now
that the 169 recommendations had been
made and nothing has been done. Salary of lecturers is just one of the nine
demands of ASUU”.