Buhari Appeals To ASUU To End Strike

ABUJA

President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to the university lecturers under the umbrella of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to suspend the one month warning strike they embarked upon few days ago.

ASUU, few days ago, withdrew their services nationwide to register their displeasure over inability the Federal Government to implement agreement it reached with the union regarding welfare packages and other issues.

President Buhari who was visitor to the 25th and 26th convocation of University of Abuja (UniAbuja), on Friday, admitted that the periodic academic interruptions in the university system has had devastating effect on the university education system.

He said: “Let me use this opportunity to appeal to ASUU members to return to the class, while we continue discussion on how best to meet their demands as enumerated in the agreement we reached.

“As a responsible government, we are committed to the transformation of the education sector. Education and its funding has been a high priority item in my agenda to transform the economy.

“We will continue to improve the deteriorating infrastructure in our universities, improve teacher development, and curriculum review.”

He congratulated the graduating students for the successful completion of their academic and non-academic responsibilities that earned the different degrees being awarded to them. 

Meanwhile, the vice chancellor, Prof. AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, told journalists during press conference that 8, 769 students participated in the 25th and 26th convocation of the university.

He explained that the rise in the figure of graduands as against previous convocations was as a result of some students who were omitted from previous exercises due to one academic challenge or the other, adding that most of the graduands are from the Centre for Distance Learning and Continuing Education (CDL&CE).

He told journalists that 267 students were awarded PhD, 2, 372 students earned Master’s degree, while Postgraduate Diploma students were 214.

He added: “We are also clearing a backlog of about 2, 929 of students from CDL&CE from over the years.”