Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba (Dr) Lekan Balogun, Alli Okunmade II, has called on all stakeholders in the education sector to intervene in the ongoing face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The traditional ruler expressed worries over the seemingly rigidity on the part of both the government and ASUU, leading to incessant strikes by the latter, and appealed for a quick resolution of the logjam.
Olubadan made the appeal the executive members of the Conference of Alumni Association of Nigerian Universities (CAANU), led by its chairman, Professor Ahmed Tijani Mora, mni., paid a courtesy call on him at his Alarere palace.
ASUU, it would be recalled is currently on an indefinite strike owing to breakdown of negotiation between the universities’ lecturers and the Federal Government over the non-full implementation of the 2009 agreement entered into by the two parties.
Oba Balogun lamented that his earlier call on both the government and ASUU not to allow the issue to snowball into full-blown industrial unrest when the university teachers served a notice of one-week warning strike was not heeded.
The Olubadan urged the alumni associations of the various universities to use their positions, either individually or corporately, 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 the ASUU to let the interest of our children be paramount in whatever decision they take.
“In whatever we do in life, time is of 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 the children and their traumatised parents,” the Olubadan added.
Professor Mora, in his address, said the visit, which was the concluding part of the CAANU Delegates’ Conference held in Ibadan, was to identify with the Olubadan and congratulate him on his accension to the throne and prayed that the metropolis would witness tremendous growth and development during his reign.
