The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, on Thursday, urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector to save it from imminent collapse.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the call is sequel to the recent strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, over the non-implementation of agreements signed with the union by the Federal Government as far back as 2009.
This was revealed in a statement by the President of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
Akintola said that about 80 per cent of Nigerian universities have suspended academic activities and that MURIC was disturbed by the “unhealthy development in the education sector”.
“Strikes have negative impacts on students, their lecturers as well as the institutions.
“Unscheduled breaks in academic programmes caused disruptions in academic calendars and these have devastating effects on so many other activities relating to the education of the youth.
“Most importantly, constant strikes impact negatively on the quality of education thereby diminishing the value of degrees awarded by Nigerian universities,” he said.
He explained that the strike will increase social vices among the idle youths and called on the Federal Government to implement agreements reached with ASUU by the previous administration.
“Neither can Federal Government safe its face by passing the buck because government is a continuum.
Akintola blamed political office holders for not paying enough attention to the nation’s public tertiary institution; rather, they preferred to send their children to private and foreign Universities.
“The Federal Government has not been fair enough to ASUU if in 2017 we are still talking about FG/ASUU agreement of 2009.
“It is also fully aware that the total debt arising from the 2013 agreement up till now is N850 billion.
“Yet, the same government allocated a paltry sum of N369 billion to the Ministry of Education.
“We appeal to the Federal Government to make the education sector its priority by declaring a state of emergency to save the sector from total collapse,” he said.
He also appealed to ASUU to embrace dialogue towards the resolution of the lingering crises.
