By Gabriel Dike
The National Parents-Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) has made a passionate appeal to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other sister unions in the tertiary institutions to reconsider their position on the ongoing industrial action and accept what the Federal Government is offering on the negotiation table.
Deputy President of NAPTAN, Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said the prolonged industrial action, coupled with the warning strike by the non-teaching unions would cripple public universities. He said incessant industrial actions in the nation’s tertiary institutions would make Boko Haram think it is winning the war against Western education and also disrupting academic calendar in schools.
According to him, ASUU’s roll-over strike, non-teaching staff declared warning strike and issuance of one-month ultimatum by polytechnic staff unions to the Federal Government was an indication that the signs were pretty bad.
His words: “Let ASUU and other staff unions take what government has offered. ASUU and other sister unions should think because this government is not ready for them.
“We want to appeal to ASUU in particular to go back to the classroom. Boko Haram seems to be winning with universities closed and threats by ASUP and SSANIP to join them.
“Boko Haram is winning because schools are closed and many students don’t go to school. Nigerian parents are worried about the deadlock.”
Ogunbanjo revealed that all is not well with tertiary education as the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics are warning up for fresh strike in the polytechnic system. He stated that the situation in the Nigerian university system (NUS) has further been made worse with another roll-over strike by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU), thus paralyzing academic and administrative activities in public universities.
“On behalf of Nigerian parents, we beg ASUP and SSANIP to also accept what the government is offering to avert the impending strike in the polytechnics,”