BY IKHILI EBALU, BENIN CITY
As citizens celebrate Nigeria Independence at 62 with mixed feelings, the acting President of Riverine Peace Initiative in Niger Delta, Comrade Toluwa Mulade has urged Federal Government and ASSU to come up with a working template to resolve the controversy surrounding the Education sector in tertiary institutions across the country.
He expressed worries over the lingering crisis, which he said could affect spate of learning when students eventually resume back to school.
Comrade Mulade stated this while speaking to Aljazirah Nigera on a telephone interview.
He condemned the recent statement Bashir El-Rufai made urging the Federal Government to scrap ASSU, according to him, as a Governor’s Son, he was supposed to learn how to address issues of public interest with some level of wisdom and decorum.
“I don’t blame Bashir El-rufai because he actually would not feel the pains of our students, after all, all through his life, he never tasted what life is like with our government federal universities. Is scrapping ASSU the issue? Or attending to the demands of making our learning environment conducive both for the students and their lecturers. “
He said , Federal Government has the capacity to settle this issue, so I am employing our President, Mohammadu Buhari to prevail over the crisis and come up with a solution that would make the country stronger. It is not abnormal to disagree on an issue, but after much deliberations, both parties are expected to come to an agreement and proffer a working solution to the dilemma that has prevailed our tertiary institutions.
As Nigeria independence celebration take place, I know we have experienced series of challenges in all ,most all sectors but despite all these, we are still united. I want to urge Nigerians to remain focused and continue to belive that nothing can brake our unity. I am appreciating our security personnel who are laying their lives to secure our territories and our lives and properties, our spiritual leaders who keep praying for the unity of this country, they should not give up faith, but continue to ensure Nigeria grow together in Unity. I charged the security personnel to put in more effort to secure and promote unity in the country.
Speaking further, he said the federal government should ensure they inaugurate credible people into NDDC board to revive the commission as Niger Delta would not afford to work with persons of questionable characters whose aim and mission are to siphon money and not to work.
“As we speak, all the NDDC Projects in riverine areas have been abandoned and we need members that will be inaugurated to come and work and not to steal,”
He however called on politicians to eschew hate speech and violence as they go about their campaign.
“I want our politicians to show that they have learned and ready to better our democracy, not destroying the good things about democracy. We have added another year to our independence, so it must reflect on our activities.” he said.