Niger Delta University Branch Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU), Dr Beke Sese has disclosed that he and his colleagues were invited to Government House in Yenagoa by Chief Security Officer to Governor Seriake Dickson on Tuesday and warned against rallying in the state.
The ASUU chapter was also denied permission to stage a peaceful rally by the State Police Command.
Sese said the rally could not hold and was instead turned into a prayer session, calling on God to intervene and cause the Federal government to honour the agreement it freely entered into in 2009.
Some of the lecturers present at the prayer session carried placards.
Some of the placards held by the lecturers read: “Can your child afford to go to Ghana and Malaysia universities?If no, then join ASUU to better the university system,” “Government save our universities, “Support ASUU help your child,” “Help the poor, educate your child,” “Not every child can go to Ghana to study,” “We must stop the movement of students to abroad” and “Agreement is agreement.”
Sese said: “ASUU has, over the years, consistently engaged successive governments through dialogue and avoidable strike actions to compel the political leadership to arrest and reverse the rot in the university system.The leadership of our union has been in several talks with the Federal Government over a possible peaceful resolution of this present crisis but it is quite disheartening that the government has refused to show the necessary commitment and sincerity in its self-proclaimed effort to address our demands.”
“Rather than honour an agreement, it freely entered into our union and after several months of negotiation,government has resorted to arbitrary imposition of money by the purported disbursement of N100 billion to address the funding requirements of some universities.”
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