The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Lekan Balogun, on Sunday called on stakeholders in the education sector to intervene in the face-off between the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) leading to incessant strikes by the latter.
The monarch made the appeal during a courtesy call on him by the executive members of the Conference of Alumni Association of Nigerian Universities (CAANU) led by its chairman, Ahmed Tijani Mora, a professor.
ASUU recently extended its earlier one-month strike by another two months owing to a breakdown of negotiation between the university lecturers and the government over the non-full implementation of the 2009 agreement entered into by the two parties.
The Olubadan had earlier called on both the government and ASUU not to allow their disagreement snowball into full-blown industrial unrest when the teachers served the notice of strike with a week-warning strike. He lamented that his call was not heeded.
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Oba Balogun, however, urged the alumni association to use their positions either as individuals or corporate body to reach out to the two parties in the dispute to sheath their swords and give room for amicable resolution, noting that “where two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers”.
“I want to use this opportunity of having these August visitors around to appeal to both the Federal Government and ASUU to let the interest of our children be paramount in whatever decision they take.
According to him, in whatever we do in life, time is of the essence and there has not been mechanism to redeem any time lost which is why all the parties involved in this current imbroglio must reach a compromise and end it for the sake of students and their traumatised parents”, Oba Balogun added.
Mora in his address said the visit which was the concluding aspect of the CAANU’s delegates’ conference held in Ibadan was to identify with the monarch and congratulate him on his accession of the throne with a prayer that the metropolis would witness tremendous growth and development during his reign.
