NURSS Canvasses Education Summit Over Varsities’ Strike

Worried by the four months old industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt (RSUST) chapter and its counterparts in University of Education (UOE), Rivers State, students’ leaders in the state have advocated for education summit to address the issues at stake.

Making the call in an exclusive interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt last weekend, the National President of National Union of Rivers State Students (NURSS), Comrade Godpower Chioma Egbule, said the summit was imperative for both parties and other stakeholders to discuss the area of dispute

Comrade Egbule pointed out that students of both institutions are worse off in the empasse and solicited for the intervention of the political class, elder statesmen, traditional rulers and respected individuals in the on-going industrial dispute in order to guarantee the future of the students.

“Today our universities are in comatose and students are buffeted with myriads of challenges which include antiquated curriculum, unconducive environment, ill-equipped library and the alarming rate of strikes, which has fast turned into a nightmare scenario”, he said.

Also commenting on the issue, the Public Relations Officer of NURSS, Mr. Amadi ThankGod, stressed the importance of students in the state and the implication of allowing them to remain idle in the present political dispensation in the face of high level of literacy in modern society.

“Students have a right to continuous uninterrupted education. They represent the most inspiring, dynamic, virile and most populous segment of our state’s population”.

“It is therefore, a tragedy of monumental proportion to observe how our political gladiators, lecturers and stakeholders in education sector have over-looked the strike issue in the institutions in the state”.

He remarked that it is disheartening that the Rivers State government and ASUU would watch students become idle and more vulnerable to violent elements in our society, especially in this period of election.

According to him, as the 2011 elections drew closer, politicians have started using “our idle students to forment problems in the society, in order to achieve their selfish interests”.