Parents, Students Implore ASUU To End Strike

As the indefinite strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, entered its second week on Monday, parents and students have appealed to the union to call it off.

Some of the parents and students who spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja called on the striking lecturers to embrace dialogue in the interest of the nation.

Mrs Josephine Taiwo, a businesswoman, and mother of three undergraduates urged ASUU to suspend the strike considering its possible negative effects on both students and parents.

She noted that if the strike was allowed to continue it would alter many universities’ academic calendars and make it difficult for students to graduate at the right time.

Mrs Okiki Samson, a teacher in one of the government secondary schools in the FCT also decried the incessant industrial actions in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.

As a parent, she described the current development as unhealthy for the future of the students.

“It is unfortunate that some students have spent over five years for a course that is supposed to last four years as a result of frequent strikes.

“Whenever ASUU goes on strike, it is the children of the poor that suffer it. Most children of the rich do not school in our universities.”

(NAN).