Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has said that lecturers returned to class after their 8-month strike due to court order obtained by the federal government and the intervention of the Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila .
Osodeke who said this during an interview on Channels TV’s ‘Sunday Politics’, further averred that they are hoping the government will do the needful now the strike has been suspended.
He said, “The issues have not been fully resolved and no agreement has been signed. So, we are resuming because we are a law abiding body and we don’t want to break the law. We are also hoping that the intervention of the speaker, as promised by him, will resolve these problems in a very short time.”
When asked if this means the lecturers are not happy to be resuming, Osodeke said:
“Definitely. In trade dispute, especially one involving university academics, the best option is negotiation and then you end it within a very short time,” he said.
“But the minister of labour believes that the best way is to force them to class. It’s so sad, but because of the interest of the Nigerian students, their parents, and the speaker, our members will teach.
“Any country that plays with education creates room for insecurity.
“We want the next administration to follow the trend of neighbouring countries and allocate not less than 16 percent of the budget to education. When this is done, these problems will be sorted out. Our children will go to school effortlessly.”
