The All
Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the Federal Government's
insincere and amateurish handling of the strike that has paralyzed
academic work in public universities in the country for the third month
running.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday
by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the
party said the tepid and half-hearted way the government has handled the
strike has shown that it does not place much premium on education,
which is the path to national development.
It said there is no better indication of the government's
disdain for education than the fact that the Jonathan Administration
has continued in its profligate ways even as students caught in the web
of the strike remained at home when they should be engaged in serious
academic work.
APC said since the strike started, the Jonathan
Administration has thrown at least two mega, money-guzzling dinners in
Abuja, perhaps the best example of the aphorism 'Nero fiddling while
Rome burns'. In one of such frivolities, the President and his party
folks feasted joyously at a post-PDP convention dinner even as
hapless students were bemoaning their fate over the strike.
The party said it was also in the midst of the strike
that the First Lady organized the so-called peace rally that brought
hundreds of unsuspecting women to Abuja in what later turned out to be a
march of shame. The Abuja gathering must have guzzled millions of
naira.
''Yet, some ministers had the temerity to insult the
sensibilities of Nigerians by saying the government will shut down if it
meets ASUU's demand. What an affront! They did not say Nigeria will
shut down when the country paid out 3 trillion naira in non-existent
fuel subsidies; they did not say Nigeria will shut down over the 1
trillion spent in the last eight years on less than 500 people; they did
not say Nigeria will shut down due to FG's monumental profligacy, which
includes spending billions of naira to pamper ex-militants, some of
whom are now so overfed that they are threatening the country's very
existence!
''It is particularly shocking that the government has carried on as if everything is normal, without bothering about the fate of the students who have been marooned at home since the strike started. Perhaps this is because the children and wards of those at the helm of affairs are luxuriating in schools abroad, or because they are too comfortable to worry about their less-fortunate compatriots,'' it said.
APC also said the fact that the strike has persisted despite President Goodluck Jonathan's directive, widely reported by the media, to the FG's negotiating team to do everything possible to end the strike, says a lot about the Administration's credibility.
''In fact, the negotiations between ASUU and the Federal Government were called off two days after the President issued his directive. So much for credibility!'' the party said.
APC
reiterated its earlier call on the FG, in a statement it issued on Aug.
20th, to immediately implement the agreement it willingly reached with
ASUU in 2009 and stop wasting its energy on why the agreement cannot be
implemented, saying: ''Agreements are meant to be respected, not
repudiated.''
Alhaji Lai MohammedNational Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Abuja, Sept. 11th 2013
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