A group under the aegis of Middle Belt Movement for Justice and Peace, MBMJP has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to personally step into the ASUU matter to have it resolved.
The Convener of MBMJP, Joe Bukka, who gave the advise, on Sunday in Makurdi, called on the President to emulate former President Goodluck Jonathan who personally presided over a meeting with aggrieved lecturers during his tenure and had their strike resolved.
“The former President Jonathan’s strategy paid off in November 2013, when the strike, at the time, lasted for four months and it became obvious that Nigerians resented the government for allowing the strike to linger for that long when the negotiators, on the part of the government, failed to make any headway.
“The then President Jonathan rose to the occasion, he summoned all the relevant government functionaries and the leadership of ASUU to a meeting which he personally presided over.
“He took charge of the negotiations in a sitting that lasted about 12 hours and at the end of that meeting agreements were reached, immediate actions taken and the strike was called off to the relief of all Nigerians.
“We urge President Buhari to adopt the same strategy at this time to have the strike called off because it is a national embarrassment that our public universities have remained shut for this long and our leaders are busy talking politics without taking cognisance of the fact that a country is in trouble when its human capital development is stagnated.
“That is the implication of having this strike linger for this long after the close to one year that was lost in 2021 due to COVID-19 and the same ASUU dispute”, he stated.
