Femi Falana (SAN), a human rights activist, has offered President Muhammadu Buhari advice on how to handle the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.
Academic activity in public tertiary institutions have been halted by the nearly six-month-long strike at government-owned universities.
Regarding the regrettable circumstance, Falana urged Buhari to submit an additional budget for the appropriation of the N200 billion needed to renovate federal universities around Nigeria.
He believes that this will significantly contribute to the end of the ASUU strike, which has rendered public universities inoperable since February of this year.
Falana issued the admonition in a statement on Tuesday.
Falana also faulted the Federal Government’s claim that it doesn’t have the funds to meet ASUU’s demands, insisting that the government has allocated trillions to address issues such as agriculture policy and fuel subsidy.
“The Federal Government should adopt concrete measures to end the ASUU strike without any further delay,” Falana’s statement read in part.
“Instead of lamenting over the strike, President Buhari should urgently submit a supplementary budget to the National Assembly for the appropriation of the sum of N200 billion required to revamp the federal universities.
“This demand is in accordance with the FG/ASUU Agreement, whose terms are binding on the Federal Government. The National Assembly, concerned parents, progressive civil society bodies and other relevant stakeholders should prevail on President Buhari to do the needful with a view to ending the strike without any further delay.”
Recall that Buhari had, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, said “truly, enough is enough” for keeping Nigerian students at home.
