Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to resolve the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Orji Kalu Says ASUU Members Are Starving
KanyiDaily recalls that ASUU had embarked on a warning strike since February 14, over the failure of the federal government to meet its demands.
Amid the strike, the government and the union have held a series of meetings, but no agreement has been reached by both sides on ending the strike.
While fielding questions from newsmen on Wednesday evening on the welfare of the ASUU members, Kalu appealed to Buhari to consider paying the striking lecturers some months of salaries to save them and their families from starvation.
He said, “A lot of students from my constituency have been calling me over the matter and I feel it is godly for all Nigerians, including religious leaders, community leaders and all of us to put all hands together to return ASUU back to work and also save their families; some are starving to death”.
He lamented that the lecturers are suffering in the absence of salaries for about five months, pleading passionately, “I want the federal government to consider paying them some of their salaries while negotiation is still on”.
Kalu, who is the Senate Chief Whip noted that it is written, “even in the Koran and the Bible, that wherever you sow is where you reap. They have no farms and no other businesses. They have nothing to sustain them”.
He, therefore, called on all parties concerned, especially the federal government to see what they can do immediately to save the lives of the lecturers and their families.
KanyiDaily recalls that Orji Uzor Kalu had previously asked the federal government to do everything within its power to meet ASUU demands so that students who have been at home for over five months would go back to school.
