Ex-Minister Urges ASUU, FG To Embrace Dialogue

A former Minister of Power and Steel, Chief Sylvester Ogbaga, on Tuesday called for dialogue to end the current face-off between the ASUU and the Federal Government.
Ogbaga, who is also a former Permanent Secretary in the Ebonyi Scholarship Board, said that the union and the government should go back to the negotiation table to resolve the impasse.
He said the interest and future of the Nigerian student should be the ultimate concern of the warring parties, adding that dialogue was the only way out of the present imbroglio.
Ogbaga described strike as an evil wind that blows no one any good, saying that only a genuine round table discussion would usher in a lasting solution to the crisis.
He decried the fallen standard of university education which he blamed on recurrent strikes by various trade unions in the universities as well as students’ unrest.
“There is a decline in the standard of university education in Nigeria and this is due to incessant strikes either by Asuu Or NASU or worse still from violent demonstrations by students. “This ugly scenario is no doubt affecting the product of our universities and has lowered the rating of the nation’s ivory tower in the international circle. “There is need for concerted efforts among stakeholders to stem the tide,’’ Ogbaga said.
The former minister noted that qualitative and functional university education was critical for the country’s socio-economic and political development, adding that recurrent strikes in the apex education sector posed setback to the overall development of the country.
He said the strike which entered its ninth day and that of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics already in its seventh week was not acceptable and called for quick resolution of the crises for the interest of the students in the institutions.