Sanwo-Olu’s Aide Seeks End to ASUU Strike, Says New Varsities over-subscribed

Funmi Ogundare

Worried by the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Special Adviser on Education (SAE) to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, yesterday, appealed to the federal government and stakeholders to intervene and end the five-month-old strike.

Wahab, who made the appeal when members of the Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN) paid him a courtesy visit in his office at Alausa, Ikeja, acknowledged the association as partners in the development of education.

He said ASUU strike has to be called off to enable the students go back for their studies that had been truncated for over five months.
According to him, “ASUU needs to change its approach to strike as no nation can develop with its youths at home for months because an idle hand is a devil’s workshop.”

“We can’t continue to keep Nigerian youths at home for several months. No nation can develop with its active youths at home for over five months. The federal government and concerned stakeholders must act fast to end the prolonged strike.”
He said since Lagos State University (LASU) is not on strike, many applicants in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) chose its three public universities.

“LASU, Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUST) and the Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) are now oversubscribed in the 2022 UTME application.
“LASU and the two new universities are not on strike, but we are worried that at the national level, students have been at home for months. Because of absence of strike in LASU and the new universities, we are currently over subscribed,” Wahab stated.

The SAE disclosed that by September, the first set of new students would be admitted and that the two universities would run 96 programmes with one particularly course over subscribed by 1,000 applicants.
He revealed that Governor Sanwo-Olu is doing so much in education,  but his achievements is under reported. He admonished EWAN to showcase the numerous achievements this administration has recorded.

“The governor is doing a lot in the sector, but it is underreported. Education is critical to this administration and to develop the state, we invested huge fund in education.  His investment in education is unprecedented.

“The state is heading towards a positive direction. In WASSCE, we moved from 38.79 per cent to 79.64 per cent in terms of students’ performance.
“Our primary schools are doing well. The introduction of Ekoexcel has changed the landscape of education in the state.”

The Chairman of EWAN, Mr. Mojeed Alabi, commended the SAE for assisting the governor to transform the tertiary institutions in the state and pledged its support to partner with the state government to promote education.

“As a product of popular struggle, you have demonstrated your understanding of the need to prioritise the needs of the masses, and we are happy that you have not derailed. We will fight when the need arises and when you are doing well we will commend you.
“Therefore, this token of presentation from us is an extension of our own hands of fellowship in honour of your humility and commitment to reposition education for good.”