Lecturers on election duty not representing ASUU —Osodeke
By Uji A. Iliyasu
Abuja
The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said they are worried that little or nothing has been done to ameliorate the excruciating conditions of Nigerians under which the 2023 general elections will be conducted.
A release signed by ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, and made available to Blueprint Friday, said life has become a nightmare for Nigerians and hopes that the general election will change the narrative, adding that ASUU members who participate in the electoral process are just exercising their civic responsibility, but not representing the academic union.
“Owing to some unpalatable reports available to the leadership of ASUU, the union resolved and stated after 2015 general elections that it would no longer recommend its members to participate in the conduct of general elections as REPRESENTATIVES of ASUU. “However, the union understands that members as citizens have civic rights and can make individual decisions on playing roles in the electoral process apart from voting.
Osodeke chastised the the Federal Government for its currency redesign project that has put average Nigerians in excruciating pains.
“For majority hapless and helpless Nigerians, the business of existence has become nightmarish with the implementation of the ill-conceived currency redesign policy.
“On daily basis, ordinary citizens are confronted with gruesome sense of abandonment by federal, state and local authorities whose primary responsibilities are security and welfare of the citizens.
“Poverty, hunger, diseases and sundry existential challenges have become daily companions of the citizenry.
“Meanwhile, political elites carry on as if they have lost every idea about organising and running a decent society for the benefit of all. The country, no doubt, is in dire need of focused leadership that will restore order and inject life into a nation desperately gasping for breath,” the release stated.
Osodeke said participation in the upcoming elections is a moral duty for all Nigerians, adding thatto change the narratives of ballot stuffing and snatching, thuggery, vote-buying and other electoral ills of the past, all hands must be on deck.
“ASUU posits that it is time Nigerians reorganised the political and socio-economic equations of the country for the benefit of the generality of its people. A stop must be put to a situation where the resources of the country are concentrated in the hands of a few manipulative political elites. This is why ASUU calls on Nigerians to carefully weigh the profiles and antecedents of those that have been thrown up by various political parties before casting their votes.
” Education, particularly university education, is the catalyst to Nigeria’s developmental challenges and Nigerians should be wary of politicians whose antecedents are antithetical to the provision of qualitative and affordable education in the country.”