By Peter Duru

Makurdi…Vice Chancellor of Benue State University, Prof. Msugh Kembe has raised concern over the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, warning that incessant strike was gradually killing university education in Nigeria.

Prof. Kembe also warned that strikes were causing a great disservice to university education and distorting the academic calendar of universities in the country.

The Vice Chancellor spoke yesterday when he received the State Executive Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ led by its acting chairman, Kajo Martins, in his office.

ASUU strike

He stated that one of the requirements for assessing the standard of universities anywhere in the world was the presence of foreign students in its universities stressing that incessant strike was discouraging such students from patronizing public universities in the country.

https://newlive.vanguardngr.com/2018/09/we-will-not-join-nlc-strike-bauchi-poly-asup-says/

Prof. Kembe said, “Let me emphasis here that due to ongoing strike by ASUU, we have asked our students to go back home and this will surely truncate academic calendar of the university.

“For instance, when a student is coming from a foreign country to study in Nigeria for a course of four years, he ends up spending more years due to strikes, this is causing disservice to the universities, particularly, the public universities.

“At the end of the day, private universities will be enjoying the patronage of foreign students more than the public universities,” he stated.

To address the challenge, Prof. Kembe appealed to the federal government to attend to the issues raised by the ASUU so as to save tertiary institutions from academic drawbacks.

He explained further that the suspension of prospective graduates from the university by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) had been lifted adding that  graduates from the university had already been mobilized to participate in the next batch of the scheme commencing soon.

Earlier, the NUJ acting Chairman acknowledged the good relationship between the BSU management and the media in the state and appealed for its sustenance.