“FG is weak to meet demands but has the strength to (give) order.” Nigerians strongly criticize varsities reopening order

CURSORY: Nigerians have expressed huge displeasure to the order FG’S order for Varsities to be reopened.

Recall that the federal government had earlier issued out an order to varsities VC’s, telling them to reopen public varsities which has been shutdown by ASUU since the ongoing strike.

Nigerians have frowned upon the order, saying that it is absurd that the government will expect lecturers to return to class without being paid for the 7 months salary they have been owed since the strike.

A tweep, @kingsleyiosagi1, said, “It’s so unfortunate. In 2014, the same Buhari was against Goodluck Jonathan that Asuu strike has taken too long. Now it’s his turn. No wonder they think there is a political party using ASUU because they know what they used ASUU to achieve in the past government.”

Another tweep, @sagecares, wrote, “FG is weak to meet demands but has the strength to (give) order.”

Other Twitter users decried the non-payment of lecturers’ salaries during the strike and expressed sadness about the strike’s effect on students.

@KOsaigbevo said, “Imagine a lecturer with unpaid salaries for months setting and marking exam questions. Mentally, are they ready to lecture? Plus, you can only force a horse to the river, you can’t force it to drink.

“It’s so sad to see innocent students caught up in a fight they know nothing about.”

In support, @ogundeleIsrae10 added, “Ordering them to resume without meeting their demands or paying their backlog salaries is as good as they don’t resume. You cannot force them to lecture on an empty stomach.”

Hailing the union’s struggles, @ernesticano11 tweeted, “It is only those with same bad minds with FG that will support them in this their nonsense order. Why haven’t we heard that presidents, governors, senators, honourables, ministers and soldiers are being owed? ASUU should never back out of this journey. They must stand and fight FG.”

Student group kicked against the order by the Federal Government

A student group, the Fund Education Coalition kicked against the order by the Federal Government, through the National Universities Commission.

In a statement, Monday, signed by its Coordinator, and Assistant Public Relations Officer, Damilare Adenola and Babatimehin Asiwaju, respectively, the students noted that ASUU was on a legitimate cause to save public education, adding that the FG should, instead, meet the demands of the striking lecturers.

Reacting, the students said,

“Without mincing words, the Fund Education Coalition states that we stand strongly opposed to the recent directive given by the Federal Government to pro-chancellors and vice-chancellors of federal universities through the NUC to reopen the federal universities across Nigeria.

“We maintain that ASUU have continued to operate within the limits of their rights by declaring and sustaining an industrial strike action in resistance to the FG’s poor management of public institutions, miserly remunerations that government has continued to pay lecturers in those institutions among other things.

“We find it disconcerting that the government has persisted in its use of repression in dealing with the union—from threats of an outright ban and license withdrawal to the deplorable act of dragging the union to the industrial court to secure an unfair judgement and to the most recent show of utter despotism with its resumption directive.”

“We say that we understand the governments’ deception and we condemn it. We consider it an absurdity that the government will order the reopening of federal universities given the beyond-deplorable state that they exists in laboratories with substandard apparatus (or no apparatus at all in some cases) for conducive learning; dilapidated hostel facilities that still only cater for a minimal fraction of the students in these institutions, absence of sufficient academic infrastructure to cater to the needs of the growing university communities, thus resulting in cramped up lecture theatres, among many others.

“In reflection on the above issues, the Fund Education Coalition finds the demands of ASUU, not only worthwhile, but also pressing. And we compel the government to come to the realisation of the decadence in the educational system, and subsequently, begin and sustain revitalisation of that sector through adequate and fine funding among others; all of which are captured in ASUU’s demands.

“We urge students and parents alike to see through the gimmicks of the FG and unite in solidarity with ASUU against the governments’ continued crippling of our educational sector. It has become increasingly inevitable that Nigerians take to the streets to protest this attack on the entire citizenry of the Nigerian state,” the statement added.

Read Also: ASUU reacts to FG’S order for varsities to reopen

ALLSCHOOL TEAM