A prominent Islamic Scholar in Kano State, Sheikh Abdulwahab Gadon-Kaya has appealed to the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to find a lasting solution to the ongoing ASUU strike.
The Islamic Scholar made the call during a Town Hall meeting tagged ‘Struggle: In Defense of Nigerian Public Universities’ held on Saturday in Kano.
According to him, there was the need for the urgent reopening of the Universities because the seven-month-old strike had generated a lot of issues, including pushing many students into committing different crimes, especially robbery, drug abuse and girls roaming the streets.
Gadon-Kaya also wants the Federal Government to look into the demands of the lecturers so that the students can return to school and continue their studies, pointing out that the strike mostly affected children of the masses.
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“You should also seriously look into the issue by softening your demands so that government can be able to meet up with them.” He told ASUU while appealing to the National Assembly to intervene on the issue so that the strike could be called off.
In his remarks, the Kano Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Prof. Mahmud Lawal said the meeting was to engage the public and create better awareness on why the Union was on strike.
“We think there is the need to engage the communities where the Universities are located so that they could appreciate the reasons for the strike and how it affects their children also. The meeting was also called to hear their views on the strike and their suggestions on how to resolve the problem between us and the Federal Government.” He said.
He further explained that on many occasions, the Union had softened its demands and “on different occasions, we had agreements with the government, but many of them were not respected by the government.”
Also speaking at the meeting, Sani Garba, President Students Union, Bayero University Kano (BUK), said students were tired of the strike and appealed to the Federal Government, ASUU, National Assembly and all stakeholders to do everything possible so that they could go back to school. (NAN)