ABUJA—LEADERS of the 3rd Force Movement under the auspices of the National Consultative Front, NCFront, yesterday, urged the Federal Government to take urgent steps to immediately find lasting panacea in resolving the issues associated with the ongoing Universities Workers’ (ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT) strikes which commenced with an ASUU warning strike in February 2022.

In a statement by its Head of Public Affairs Bureau, Dr Tanko Yunusa stated: “We make this call in the overriding interest of our nation, but more particularly for the huge number of students, parents, academic and non- teaching staff in all federal and state-owned universities across the country who have been affected directly by this avoidable strike.

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“Our youths in public universities are losing their most active and creative years due to no fault of theirs, while their parents are undergoing a painful agony of witnessing their children and resources waste away under their very noses. Sadly, the children of most top government officials attend private universities or study abroad; they do not feel the distress and torment of the ordinary parents which we continue to call for a law mandating state actors their nuclear families to attend only Nigerian institutions while in office. In addition, the government is also wasting our national resources because by the end of the strike, all academic staff and non-teaching staff that are mostly inactive now would still receive their salaries.

“The bedrock of modern nation building is education and any country that trivializes it, is clearly on a path to failure. It is, therefore, regrettable that the Federal Government continues to be aloof to its responsibilities by undermining the issues associated with Collective  Agreements with the University based unions which has become a vicious cycle for decades. These concerns are not insurmountable; however, it requires a symbiotic relationship between Government and all critical stakeholders in the education sector to resolve them amicably.

“Let us begin by isolating indisputable facts that are trite. The unions have an avalanche of genuine demands; and these demands are increasing from year to year due to Government’s reneging or failing to address the issues in a timely manner. There have been recent meetings or dialogue sessions between Government, led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, and the unions which ended in deadlocks, probably due to past experiences of Government failure to honour agreements reached.

“It is our view that the issues concerning the public universities can be resolved, if government comes to the table with sincerity of purpose by recognizing the problems and show willingness to fix them. It is known to all concerned that the main concerns of the unions since the 1980s are no more than the inadequate funding of the university system, decaying and overstretched infrastructural facilities, conditions of service (salary and non-salary), autonomy and academic freedom, brain drain, and the survival of the university system. The current spate of strikes also revolves around some of these same issues and governments’ failure to honour previous Collective Agreements. And for how long would our nation continue to suffer from the pains of such insincerity and incapacity?

“The leadership of the 3rd Force Mega Movement, under the auspices of NCFront therefore pleads with all key stakeholders that are relevant to the resolution of the ongoing strike action to reconsider and prioritize the pains and agony of our youths and parents affected by this unfortunate situation and make every effort to resolve this impasse as quickly as possible so that our students can return to their educational and life pursuits.

“It is our hope that the Education Confab as proposed would come up with critical resolutions that should alter current policies and laws in a way that would prevent University based Unions’ strikes in the foreseeable future. Our dream is to build a nation in which every citizen shall be free and educated, healthy and prosperous.”