Edwin Clark, Nigeria’s Elder Statesman, urged the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to take over negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja, the elder statesman claimed that Adamu was in a better position to negotiate with ASUU than anyone else.
A person who understands the impact of the strike, he said, should be in charge of matters pertaining to education.
On top of all that, he says, the strike has left communities that depend on schools impoverished and thrown their entire school calendar into disarray.
“The Federal Ministry of Education should take over the negotiations from labor because the labor ministry is treating the ASUU case like any other industrial matter. ”
“ASUU isn’t fighting just for themselves. This is the first time I’ve heard that they’ve included the review of their own salary in the 2009 agreement they’re discussing.
“Education is at the top of every country’s priority list. Other areas of the economy will face fewer difficulties once the majority of the population has received an education.
This payment was supposed to be generated by the Accountant-General, who allegedly embezzled N80 billion.
“That’s about half of what ASUU wants for our education system to be developed substantially.
To fix a critical sector like education, “ASUU demands about N200 billion, which is not excessive,” he said.
The wise old man predicted that the next general election in 2023 would be marred by voter apathy, as in previous ones.
He urged a heightened level of public awareness and reorientation in order to encourage Nigerians to vote in the upcoming elections.
“In Nigeria, voter apathy is a result of the unfortunate events that have marked our elections.
“Some Nigerians have lost faith in our electoral process due to incidents such as ballot box snatching, killings, election results being decided by courts, and politicians failing to live up to their campaign promises.”
As a result of these developments, our governors, for example, no longer owe their positions of authority to any particular voter and are instead more autocratic than the military.
Some of them are now vying for the presidency because “they lord it over us, act anyhow, have no character, and have no regard for their traditional rulers and unfortunately some of them now want to become president,” he said.
Clark argued that it was past time to give the South East a taste of national power at the highest level.
My title is Southern Nigeria’s and the Middle Belt Leaders Forum’s chief executive officer. Pan Nigerian Forum (PANDEF) is under my leadership as well. If any party does not promise to put the presidency in the South, we will mobilize our people to vote against them.
“Like any other Nigerian, the South-East has the right to any position they are qualified for,” he said.
