Today looks good and this is actually a piece of great news, because the President of Nigeria, Buhari has finally appealed to ASUU to call off its lingering strike.
President Buhari has spoken about the currently ongoing strike and has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off this ongoing strike in the interest of all Nigerian students.
The President made the appeal to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) when he spoke at the 19th National Productivity Day and the conferment of the National Productivity Order of Merit Award (NPOM) to a total of forty-eight (48) eminent Nigerians and organizations actively working in both the public and private sectors, for their high productivity, hard work, and excellence on Thursday, the 12th of May, 2022.
The President’s media aide, Femi Adesina, released an official statement where he disclosed that the President urged ASUU to consider the plight of students and also urged students in public tertiary institutions to be patient, as this issue will be resolved soon.
The Presidential media aid further disclosed that the Buhari-led government had continued to strive in order to address the nagging issues in the nation’s university system within the ambit of the resources currently available.
President Muhammadu Buhari has directed four persons to resolve this issue, and the selected persons are the Chief of Staff, Hon. Ministers of Labour and Employment, Education, Finance, Budget, and National Planning to immediately bring all parties to the negotiation table again, to look into the demands of ASUU and in fact all other University-based labor unions, and find a lasting solution to this nagging problem.
‘‘The aim of this government is to uplift and grow Nigeria into a competitive, strong, vibrant, productive and sustainable economy, improving our educational system, and ensuring that Nigeria’s educational system is accorded the highest priority.’’
The President didn’t mince words, when he agreed that any country, no matter how powerful they are, will find it difficult to improve their economic performance and overall productivity without improving educational system.
According to him, “The Nigerian Government notes the emergency situation in our educational system with particular reference to the dearth of qualified and dedicated teachers to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at all levels of our educational system”.
To address these challenges and the emergency situation of having dedicated and qualified teachers, President Buhari said his administration has reviewed the retirement age of teachers from 60 years old, and increased it to 65 years, while years of service have now been moved from 35 to 40 years to encourage more graduates to join the teaching profession.
The President further disclosed that his government had recently approved a special salary scale for teachers in Basic and Secondary schools including provisions for rural posting allowance, Science teachers allowance, and peculiar allowance while prioritising timely promotion and prompt payment of all teacher’s salaries.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Will ASUU Strike be called off soon?
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