President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has described the struggle of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as one for the soul of our nation.
Ajaero spoke on Friday, at the commencement of the 23rd national delegates conference of the ASUU held at the University of Benin.
“Your fight for the 2009 agreement is not just a fight for lecturers. It’s a fight for the future of Nigeria’s intellectual sovereignty. It’s a civic responsibility which you approached gallantly.
“We applaud your doggedness. Your refusal to let the flames of the struggle to be extinguished by the cold wind of state indifference.
“The recent victory is a testimony to your resilience. But we must ask has this money left the coffers of power or is it another audio allocation. A mirage in the dessert of broken promises?
“Let us not celebrate until every kobo touches the hands of the workers who earned it. The Nigerian state is held hostage by a cabal. They have privatized our commonwealth,” Ajaero said.
In his own submission, Professor Attahiru Jega,
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A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), also a past President of ASUU, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said education is one of the key institutions in any nation.
Prof. Jega asserted that the struggle to improve education, to protect and, expand educational opportunities, provide quality education, and protect as well as defend the interest of workers in academic institutions, are in many fundamental respect, a struggle for nation building.
“In these struggles, ASUU has made many sacrifices; its members have suffered harassment, intimidation, deprivation of rights and freedoms; it has been abused, pilloried, accused of subversion, branded ‘too radical,’ he added.
The conference will come to an end on Sunday, May 11, 2025, with the election of a new ASUU president.
