By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
The Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU), University of Ibadan branch, Professor Ayoola Akinwole has declared that the on going struggle for a better public education in Nigeria should not be a one union fight.
Professor Akinwole stated this on Tuesday at a symposium themed “The Role of ASUU in The Rescue of Public Education in Nigeria” by the Workers’ Education and Civil Society Liaison Committee (WECSLC) of ASUU held at the University of Ibadan .Large Lecture Theatre of the Faculty of Arts.
According to the ASUU Chairman, the symposium has served as an eye opener to ASUU on the need for continuous interaction with other like minds to achieve better result in the fight for the interest of public varsity.
“It has been an eye opener really. Students, civil society and all others have come here to talk. The take aways is that we can always continue to interact, we must interact. What we can deduce is that, the struggle is not a one Union job”, he said.
Professor Akinwole added, ” the students, the lecturers, the parents and most importantly, the government all have roles to play.But, in all these, whenever the lecturers, parents, students unite for a common voice, the government will have no choice than to fall in line”.
” We have learnt that ASUU cannot do it alone without the support of the students. The students too cannot do it alone without the support of the lecturers. Parents cannot get the best out of their wards without the support of both the students and lecturers and then”.
The UI ASUU branch Chairman stressed, ” finally, we found out that we battle against a common enemy and that is the ruling class.”
” It is an holistic thing that everybody must play its own parts so that when ASUU is on the street, when we look back we expect that the students are behind us, and that when the students are protesting about inadequate facilities, they expect lecturers to be at the back, supporting them and we also expect parents to be at the back to join the voices of the staff and students in making sure that the government do the right thing at the right time.”
At the symposium, educational stakeholders comprising of students, civil society groups, unionists, scholars, administrators among others tasked the Academic Staff Union of Universities to change its focus in the fight for the survival of tertiary education in the country.
Commending ASUU for putting government on its toes in the fight for the better University education in Nigeria, the stakeholders emphasized maintained that the strategy for the fight need to be changed to give a better view and understanding to members of the public who always misconstrue their agitations as selfish on the part of university teachers.
