Human rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is enjoying the lingering industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Sowore said that while students and lecturers have been roaming and groaning helplessly in the streets for the past four months that lecturers of public universities have been on strike, President Buhari has been busy enjoying himself.
Sowore on his Twitter page on Thursday lamented that there are over 1.5 million students whose future is at stake due to the lingering ASUU strike, whereas no one seems to care.
The #RevolutionNow convener added that the matter has been made worse as the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union has also joined the strike.
He said, “For 123 days now Nigerian University teachers have been on strike, also Nigerian students in Colleges of Education have been thrown into the streets, their teachers too are on strike.
“The @MBuhari is enjoying the prolonged strike, students are suffering and parents are agonizing.
“There are over 1.5 million students whose future is at stake and no one seems to care. I lived through an era when the government was afraid of Nigerian students but today students are afraid of the government, they’re scared to exercise their rights to have a future.
“I urge Nigerian students to bond together and force this despicable regime to #EndAsuuStrikeNow. It is a task that must be DONE!”
ASUU has been on strike for over four months to press home its demands.
The striking lecturers’ demands include funding for the revitalisation of public universities, Earned Academic Allowances, use of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and promotion arrears.
Also, the non-teaching staff of universities including Non-Academic Staff of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, SSANU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) have embarked on industrial actions after the failure of the government to meet the demands of the respective unions.