Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has pledged to end the incessant strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), when elected president.
The KAFTAN TV CEO, who stated this during an interview with newsmen when he inaugurated the SDP Presidential Campaign Secretariat in Asaba, Delta State, said the problem of strike by ASUU shouldn’t occur.
Hear him: “If there is any strike of ASUU, from the day I am being sworn-in as the president of Nigeria, ASUU strike will end at Eagles Square.
“I will not take that oath of office and leave that place unless ASUU stands with me there and end the strike because it is a problem that shouldn’t occur.
“When I was student at the University of Ife, the government said there was no money no problem and ASUU said we will find the government the money and ASUU did find the government the money.
“Government is now stealing the money which ASUU found. By law if we abide to UNESCO, we are supposed to spend 26 per cent of our money in education.
“Now the government wasn’t doing that and ASUU went out of its way to find money from the private sector. So, this money they are quarreling over is not government money.
“Is money coming from the private sector paid into the education trust fund which the government overnight like a thief in the night amended the decree and put it under the ministry of education.
“In our time both at the federal and in Delta State, we have agreed that education money will not be under the ministry of education. Education money will be under an independent trust.
“If Kenneth Gbagi was not running for governor, he will be one of those who will be an accountable trustees of the Education Trust Fund.
“We will put prominent people in the society who have seen it all, who are not thieves, who will now keep that money and release the money to the governing council of the universities.
“ASUU is not asking for too much. Anybody who say ASUU should call off the strike without resolving this issue has no love for the children of Nigeria”.
