By CHRIS OCHAYI

ABUJA — The Niger Delta Enlightenment Network, NDEN, has called on the Federal Government to privatise public universities with a view to ending incessant strike by workers of the institutions, which was threatening  sustenance of quality education in the country.

President of NDEN, Chief Salvation Agele-Oba, in a chat with Vanguard, insisted that the panacea to lingering industrial actions by university workers, especially, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, was to privatise them.

ASUU recently embarked on strike which lasted over six months.

The strike, which started on  July 1, 2013 was suspended after a meeting of National Executive Council, NEC, of ASUU on December 17,  2013, where it directed its branches to resume work forthwith.

Agele-Oba decried the level of rot in the university system, noting that the Federal Government cannot abandon its responsibility of giving Nigerian youths qualitative education.

He argued that in addition to addressing the strike, the call if heed to, would help to check  cultism in the country’s higher institutions of learning.

He said “look at the private owned universities in the country, do you hear cases of cultists’ activities there?”

Noting that this was the only measure to rescue universities education system from eminent collapse and destruction in the country, Chief Agele-Oba  tasked the government to take a cue from revolution ignited with the liberalisation of licensing in the telecommunication sector.