*Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari urges the striking lecturers of public universities to resume academic activities as he expresses displeasure over ‘recurring disruption’ to the country’s tertiary education system

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

As Nigeria and Nigerians mark the West African country’s Independence Anniversary Saturday, October 1, 2022,

President Muhammadu Buhari has restated his call on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to suspend its over seven-month industrial and return to the classrooms.

ConsumerConnect reports President Buhari in his 2022 Independence Anniversary address Saturday, said: “I must confess that I am very pained by the recurring disruption to our tertiary education system.

“And I am using this Independence Day celebration to reiterate my call for the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities to return to the classroom while assuring them to deal with their contending issues within the limits of the scarce resources available.”

He also stated: “This administration has made appreciable progress in redressing these issues that have been lingering for over eleven years.

Going forward

Meanwhile, Buhari has said “the Federal Government will continue to mobilise resources both internationally and nationally towards funding education to ensure that our citizens are well educated and skilled in various vocations in view of the fact that education is a leading determinant of economic growth and employment generation.”

The President further said that he shared the pains of Nigerians, as he assured them that his administration would do all possible to alleviate the situation.

Buhari as well noted that “I share the pains Nigerians are going through, and I assure you that your resilience and patience would not be in vain as this administration continues to reposition as well as strengthen the security agencies to enable them to deal with all forms of security challenges.”

It is recalled that ASUU has been embarked on the current industrial action since February 14 this year.

The academic Union stated that it began the strike over contending issues, such as unpaid allowances and poor welfare of lecturers of public universities.

After after over seven months on strike, talks between Federal Government committees and ASUU collapsed recently.

The government later sought an order to ask the striking lecturers to resume academic activities through the National Industrial Court, in Abuja, FCT.

The Union has since instituted an appeal against the order.