Royal fathers in the country have waded in to save tertiary institutions from imminent collapse.
Virtually all the nation’s public universities have been shut academically as a result of the ongoing industrial strike embarked on by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday, March 23, 2020.
The traditional rulers are contacting parents, religious leaders, the affected teachers and government officials in their domain, urging them to suggest viable solutions to the present crisis.
Those in the frontline of the peace moves, according to BusinessDay investigations, include the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, Emir of Bauchi, Suleiman Adamu, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu.
Others are the Obi of Onitsha, Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, Attah Igalaland, Ameh Oboni, and other prominent traditional rulers across the six geo-political zones.
The traditional rulers, our correspondent gathered, have created a forum through wish they intend to preach peace between the government and the universities teachers.
Also, Education Ministry sources confirmed to BusinessDay that a meeting between education minister, Adamu Adamu, the concerned traditional rulers and teachers from public universities had been scheduled to hold on May 4, 2020.
Although the meeting venue has not been fixed due to the present lockdown in virtually all the states of the federation as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, but competent ministry sources confirmed that to attend the ‘Caucus’ along with the traditional rulers and education minister were ASUU president and secretary, respectively.
It would be recalled that the union had disagreed with the government, especially on the implementation of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), which ASUU said was an imposition on the union and vowed to resist it.
While the University Transparency and Accountability System (UTAS) proposed by ASUU as alternative to the IPPIS was rejected by the government.
As at press time, several calls made to ASUU president, Biodun Ogunyemi, for confirmation of the proposed peace meeting with the traditional rulers and education minister, were not through as his phone was said to be off.
