Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, the president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), states that Nigerian students should not vote for politicians whose children are studying abroad.
Osodeke stated this during a Twitter Space Webinar, organised by Premium Times and tagged ‘ASUU strike, Revitalisation Fund and the Way Forward’, The Punch reported.
Speaking on some of the ways forward on the lingering strike, the ASUU president said students should not vote for politicians who would not represent their interests.
“Anybody you believe cannot take care of your interests, whose children are busy studying abroad, who are living abroad, don’t vote for them, I repeat, you don’t need to vote for them because you don’t vote for people who will take your life,” he said.
Osodeke reportedly said this in response to a query about what Nigerian students could do in light of the ongoing ASUU strike. The ASUU has been on strike since February 24, 2022.
Meanwhile, the meeting between the leadership of the ASUU and the federal government on Tuesday, August 16, again ended without an agreement.
This suggests that the six-month strike by public university lecturers is likely to persist. The union met with Professor Nimi Briggs Committee at the National University Commission (NUC) in Abuja on Tuesday, hoping to resolve the impasse.
However, a senior member of ASUU, whose name was not disclosed, was quoted as saying that members of the Briggs renegotiation committee had not presented any new offer on the table.
The ASUU source said the committee instead pleaded with the lecturers to suspend the ongoing strike, with promises that their concerns will be included in the 2023 budget.
