The Tinubu Campaign Organisation’s Director of Media and Communications, Bayo Onanuga, has described the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as callous, unreasonable and greedy.
Newsonline reports that Onanuga said the leadership should have known that the agreement they had with the Federal government was under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration and not in All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Buhari’s administration.
Onanuga stated this in an interview session with a national daily, Punch on the chances of Tinubu’s candidacy ahead of the 2023 general election.
The TCO director of media and communication said ASUU strike will not have effect on the chances of Bola Tinubu becoming president in 2023 because the issues of the strike and the agreements were inherited and not created by the APC.
He said, “Who created the ASUU crisis? Buhari inherited the ASUU crisis. In fact, the agreement that caused the strike was done under the PDP administration. They agreed to it just to pacify ASUU, perhaps to get their votes, but Buhari has tried to implement many of the provisions in the agreement because the government is a continuum. He has tried to implement it, but ASUU keeps shifting the goalpost. The government is still not folding its hands. They have been talking to them and making them see the benefits of what the government can do to improve university education.
“Looking at ASUU’s position to extend the strike, the government has decided to meet them and assuage their worries. Maybe they are doing it for political reasons.”
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He further said, “ASUU has so far shown that it is unreasonable. How can a union resolve to embark on a protracted strike? Our children, who are supposed to spend four years, end up spending six or seven years solely because of the ASUU strike. I think the leadership of ASUU is callous, bringing our education to its knees because they want more money.”
Onanuga alleged that greed and the hunger for more money by ASUU leadership were responsible for the prolonging of the strike which has entered its seventh month.
He called on students and parents to pressure ASUU to return back to strike for the sake of the students.
“People should talk to ASUU. The government has said, “It is not that we don’t want to give you more money. We have X amount of money. There are so many things we need to spend money on, and we can’t just give everything to the universities. ASUU has also been reminded that every state or federal university has its own autonomy. It has a governing council at that level. Why can’t they try to find a way to solve some of the problems?” He said.
Onanuga maintained that Nigerians and students will not judge Tinubu based on the ASUU strike.
He said, “We believe that our people are reasonable. The issues have been tabled. Everybody knows what is happening, and they know they can’t hang anything on our candidate. As I said earlier, this problem was inherited by Buhari due to a controversial agreement signed six years before he came into power. Can the PDP blame the problem they created themselves and couldn’t resolve for six years on Tinubu?”
