The lingering crisis between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government may have a negative effect on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023 general elections, a chieftain of the party, Professor Haruna Yerima, has said.
The former House of Representatives member said President Muhammadu Buhari needs to “urgently intervene and address the thorny issues between the administration and the academic union.”
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, Yerima, who is Buhari’s political associate since 2002, said the President “must, as a matter of urgency, review the situation and avert any further degeneration of the crisis which has taken its toll on millions of Nigerian families.
The APC chieftain, who represented Biu, Shani, Bayo, Kwaya/Kusar and Shani Federal Constituency of Borno State at the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007, said President Buhari must end the debacle which is overshadowing some of the sterling achievements of the APC administration in the past seven years.
“The ‘no work, no pay’ policy adopted by the President against the university lecturers less than 100 days to the general elections is a time-bomb that may explode and negatively affect the APC chances next year. The president shouldn’t allow that to happen. The crisis must be resolved so that the party wins squarely in the forthcoming elections,” he said.
Yerima said: “so far, the opposition parties have been cashing on the lingering ASUU crisis to score cheap political goals. The President must act fast and shouldn’t be seen to be giving the opposition the desired energy to use the ASUU crisis as a campaign point against the APC.”
He said the President must appreciate that the ruling party needs to win the next election to continue and consolidate on his laudable achievements in terms of infrastructural revolution, policy transformation and good governance roadmaps he painstakingly put in place in the past years.
“There is no gain saying the fact that the President would be disturbed to see an opposition party cannibalizing and mutilating his achievements after he leaves office in May 2023. The President won’t be happy. The APC faithful won’t be happy. Nigerians won’t be happy either. To avert this, the President must take a decision, sometimes a painful one, that would brighten the chances of the APC in the next elections. The ASUU crisis is one of such obstacles that President Buhari must clear urgently.”
On Wednesday, the federal government said the university teachers will not be paid for work not done. Speaking to State House journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday, Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said the federal government’s position remains that lecturers “would not be paid for work not done.”
ASUU has accused the federal government of using half salary payment to casualise the varsity teachers, a claim the minister strongly denied.
The university teachers began a one-month warning strike on February 14, 2022, that lasted for eight months.
Some of the demands of ASUU include: revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability.
