ASUU strike: National Youth Council of Nigeria warns government against mass uprising

 

The National President, Youth Council of Nigeria, Comrade Abdulahi Abdulmajeed has said that the ongoing ASUU strike was a threat to national development as well as peace and security.
Abdulmajeed made this assertion during the Award/magazine launch of the Madonna University Alumni Association which held at the Ladi Kwali Hall of the Sheraton Hotel and Tower, Abuja on Saturday. He was speaking exclusively with DailyPost correspondent.
The youth President who was one of the guest speakers at the event had told that even if all resources are channelled towards fighting terrorism in the country, without a corresponding improvement in youth employment, the effort would yield no positive results. ‘’
Speaking on the threat the ongoing ASUU strike poses to national development, he said, ‘’ what we are saying is that this is no time to apportion blames. We must not shutdown the country, because when we shutdown the educational sector, the economy is automatically shutdown. It means the engine room of the economy has been shutdown, it means the country is no longer working a; it means the future of the country has been shutdown. It means that capital and human development has stopped being moulded and manufactured. We appreciate the fact that The University lecturers want revitalization of this critical sector, but then, we are also saying to ASUU that there is a need to revaluate, revitalize and update the universities’ curriculum. It’s not just about their welfares; it should be a holistic concern. UNESCO has said it often time that the budgetary allocation accrued to education has fallen below the line, all the time. There is no doubt about that, but today, government is at the crossroad, as ASUU said it must meet hundred per cent of its demands. Government on the other hand is saying that it does not have enough resources to meet up with the demands, all at once. All we are saying at the moment is that the government and ASUU must for the sake of Nigerian students who are idling away come to a fresh agreement and get this strike suspended. The students are running out of patience, and the youth umbrella body is equally running out of patience. We need this matter resolved before it gets out of hands.’’

Responding to the widely held notion that the strike was politically motivated, the youth leader said ‘’ I do not want to support that notion. What is the relevance of keeping students at home because ASUU is on strike? I don’t want to say it was motivated politically yet, but I want to say that if this strike does not come to an end with the two warren parties coming to terms, I will conclude that it is an act of sabotage, because as I speak to you today, out of the 70 million people that I represent, 30.1 per cent are sitting down at home idling away.’’
Speaking on the possibility of a mass uprising in Nigeria, he said ‘’ when people are pushed to the walls, when people are frustrate, when people are confronted with myriad of problems, they give up on certain things, and for that reason, you must expect that people who make peaceful resolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable; our leaders must watch it.
Speaking on the way forward for the country, Mr. Abdulmajeed said, ‘’ as the umbrella body of the Nigerian youth, we are committed to ensuring that the country does not disintegrate, but we need the government to help us achieve this goal, by involving Nigerian youth in various aspects of national concern, discussions and deliberations.’’