Warning strike: Reps invite ASUU, Labour, Education Ministers

The House of Representatives has invited the Minister of Education, Labour and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to find a lasting solution to ongoing warning strike by the union.

Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila This was sequel to the unanimous adoption of a motion of Urgent Matters of Public Importance by Rep. Dachung Bagos (PDP-Plateau) at the plenary on Tuesday.

Moving the motion earlier, Bagos said that ASUU had on March 9, after its National Executive Council meeting (NEC) held in Enugu embarked on a two-week warning strike.

Bagos said that schools had just resumed and that the strike if allowed to take full effect would cost a lot of students extra academic year.

“Also concerned, that the continued yearly strike by ASUU is becoming a national embarrassment to the country.

“It is worrisome that the continued strike has encouraged education tourism of Nigerians to other countries,” he said.

Rep. Kwewum Shawulu (PDP-Taraba) said that Nigerians spent over 300 million pounds to study in the United Kingdom and over N5 billion as school fees in Ghana.

He said that parents were sending their children to study in countries where Nigeria did not have comparative advantage.

The Rep said that more than one million children applied for admission to universities in the country annually.

Shawulu said that the universities in the country admitted about 250,000 of the 800,000 applicants in the country.

The lawmaker recommended that the procedure of owning private universities be made easier of individuals and groups to admit the rest 800,000.

Shawulu called on the house to broaden its interaction with ASUU and the government to boost investment in the sector.

He said that Nigerian universities are challenged with poor facilities like e-library, urging the leadership of the house to also factor in everything affecting the smooth operation of the schools.

In his ruling, the Speaker of the House, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila mandated the Clerk to issue letters to the relevant stakeholders for a meeting with him on Wednesday at 9 a.m.