Young parliamentarians call for quick end to ASUU strike

The Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) has called on the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to expedite action to end the lingering universities teachers strike.

YPF is a group of young men and women representing various constituencies in the National Assembly.

The group also urged the Federal Government to institute a long-term strategy to mitigate incessant strikes in government universities.

In a communique issued in Abuja on Friday at the end of its strategy meeting, the Forum said its call became imperative because incessant strikes by university teachers had over the years dented educational progression and national development.

“The Forum frowns at the continued strike by ASUU and the deprivation of youths to education.

“YPF commits to engaging the budget process to ensure adequate and effective budgetary allocation to education to improve its quality and conditions of learning for students for enhanced leadership development.

“We commend the Executive arm of government for the N75 billion youth development funds, but it must ensure that policies geared towards job creation and economic development that are more holistic, properly targeted, and needs specific are put in place,’’ the Forum said in the communiqué.

It said this should include transparent allocation of youth development funds and accountability to ensure that young Nigerians were the true beneficiaries.

It also commended the Federal Government for declaring November 1 every year as the National Youth Day.

The Forum called on all tiers of government to declare a decade for youth development beginning from 2021 with clear short-term and long-term plans, given the deplorable socio-economic condition of youths in Nigeria.

It called on the leadership of the National Assembly to increase its support for the YPF and to ensure that more of young parliamentarians were assigned to special committees such as the Constitution Review Committee.

The Forum expressed concerns at the lack of cohesion in the implementation of activities aimed at the development of youths in Nigeria.

It reiterated its commitment to ensuring that the National Assembly expedited legislative action on the passage of the National Youth Development Commission Bill which provides a holistic approach for addressing youth development.

It called on legislators at the national and state levels to expand legislative oversight to the implementation of legislations enacted by parliament and not to restrict such function to projects executed by the Executive arm of government.

The Forum said it would leverage on the on-going electoral reform process to demand reforms on effective deployment of technology for transparent and credible elections, cost of elections, democratic processes within political parties, and Election Day management.

It condemned alleged killing of youths by operatives of the disbanded SARS and the alleged killing of peaceful protesters and commiserated with families who lost loved ones through acts of police brutality or in the ensuing protest.

The YPF also called on government to ensure justice and compensation for victims and their families.

It condemned the looting, destruction of public and private properties and attack on some security officers and the burning of police stations in some cities when hoodlums hijacked the #EndSARS protest.

The forum called on government at all levels to review their security architecture and ensure a better leadership for security agencies given the state of insecurity in the country.

It called on President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute the National Human Rights Governing Council in line with Section 2 of the National Human Rights Commission (Amendment) Act 2010.

The communiqué was signed by Mr Kabir Tukura and Dr Simon Elisha, chairman and secretary, respectively.