The Osun State Council of Obas have described the strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as one that has set the nation’s education sector back, appealing to the union and the FG to work towards reaching a resolution in the interest of Nigerian students who are presently at home.
Expressing serious worry over the continued faceoff between the academia and the Federal Government, the monarchs held that they, as custodians of culture and traditions, cannot fold their arms and watch things degenerate.
The monarchs who sought calm and restraint from the two warring parties, added that it was necessary for the overall development of the education sector and the country.
Speaking for the traditional rulers, the Chairman of the Council of Obas, Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, called for both parties to reach a middle ground for the sake of progress.
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Representing the Chairman, Oba Munirudren Adesola Lawal, Timi of Ede, stated that the Council emphasised that there was a need for both sides to bury the hatchet and allow reasons and decency to prevail.
He held that no nation desirous of making it big in all sectors of its existence can readily joke with its education sector.
In his words, ‘In order not to further pull the hands of the clock back in this sector because of the attendant dire consequences, especially in the area of development, I am using this opportunity on behalf of my colleague Obas in Osun State to call for an amicable resolution of the crisis.
‘For the overall interest of the students, their parents and the Nigerian federation this can not be emphasized. To this end, I am stating emphatically, that we are not in any way happy about this imbroglio between the two warring sides.
‘It is high time they saw reason on the need to embrace peace and harmony for the growth of our country’s educational sector. No nation toys with its education the way it looks in our country today.
‘The future of our children must not and should not be mortgaged on the altar of complex and ego being displayed between the FG and ASUU.’
The Osun monarchs went on to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to use his authority to nip the impasse in the bud so that sanity can be brought to the nation’s education sector.
