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”.