The chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU),Institute of Agricultural Research and Training(I.A.R&T) of the Obafemi Awolowo University(OAU) chapter, Dr(Mrs) Olufunmilayo T. Ande, yesterday appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan, not to allow some of those working with his administration to mislead him to drag Nigeria back to the dark days of “Abacha’s regime.”
She gave this advice while addressing members of the I.A.R & T ASUU after a procession organised to honour and to mourn the former national president of the union, Professor Festus Iyayi, who died recently in a motor accident along Lokoja-Abuja Road.
Ande, the union’s deputy chairman, Mr Adesina K. Tiamiyu and its secretary, Dr J. Olaide Saka, had led scores of the union members in the procession, after which they were addressed by the chairman and the institute’s executive-director, Professor James Alabi Adediran, who described Iyayi’s death as a great loss to Nigeria.
The ASUU chairman maintained that the struggle embarked upon by the union was a struggle to liberate the country’s public universities and the entire educational sector.
She urged President Jonathan to immediately honour the federal government’s agreement with the union.
Ande maintained that since Nigeria currently claims to be a democratic society, President Jonathan should not adopt threat to force the striking ASUU members to go back to the classrooms without the guarantee that the agreements reached will be honoured.
She maintained that the union was not convinced that the former ASUU national president died in a motor accident with the evidence before the union.