By Adesina Wahab

As university workers and the government are locked in a battle of wits over welfare issues and others, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS and the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria,  NAPTAN, have called for caution. 

Speaking in a chat with Vanguard newspaper, the National President of NANS, Comrade Lucky Emonefe, noted that students were always bearing the brunt in cases of industrial actions by university workers.

“Government should listen to the lecturers and university workers generally. Some of the things the lecturers are complaining about are genuine. Look at the issue of the composition of Governing Councils of higher institutions in the country, many people who have no business being in such positions were included. Such sensitive positions should be for technocrats in the education sector and academicians. Why would the government not honour an agreement it willingly entered into? Honour an agreement you signed.

“However, I would appeal to ASUU members to also give room for mediation and negotiation because in the long run, all parties would still come to the table to talk. Let the parties give room for negotiation and mediation. Students are always at the receiving end of such fight between the sides and nobody wants to waste his or her precious time, ” he said. 

Also speaking, the Deputy National President of NAPTAN, Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said government should honour its promise to the workers. 

“Government should pay them and fulfil their obligations. When they went on strike the other time, part of what was agreed on to make the workers suspend their action was that nobody would be victimized on account of the strike. So, if you are not paying them their dues, are you not victimizing the workers? If ASUU goes on strike, SSANU and NASU join, the university system would collapse. The other time parents had to keep their children at home for about a session, that is not good for the system.

“Look at the recent global ranking of universities, the best ranked university in the country was in about 1,000th position. All these incessant stikes are part of the poor ranking of our universities. Government should just be alive to its responsibilities and avert another round of industrial disharmony, ” he noted.