Babalakin can’t intimidate us –ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has vowed that it would not succumb to the alleged blackmail being employed by the chairman of the FG/ASUU 2009 Agreement Renegotiation Committee, Dr. Wale Babalakin.

Note that Babalakin had, over the weekend, stated that his team believed that no Nigerian should be deprived of university education because of his/her financial circumstance and urged ASUU to suspend the strike and return to the negotiation table.

Reacting to the position of ASUU 2009 Agreement Renegotiation Committee chairman, ASUU/University of Lagos (UniLag) chapter chairman, Dr Dele Ashiru, decried the position of Babalakin and his team, saying that they have lost credibility and are struggling to put up a defence.

Ashiru, who stated this in an interview with newsmen, said the one-week-old strike continues nationwide where the union has members and vowed that the union will never return to the negotiation table with Babalakin in place as the chairman of the ASUU 2009 Agreement Renegotiation Committee.

“‎The strike is ongoing here in UniLag and other campuses across the country where we have our unions. We are appealing to the government to return to the negotiating table in the interest of our students and the generality of Nigerians.

“A man that is down and has suffered credibility problem will say whatever he likes as he is struggling to defend himself. He gave himself away on the issue of education bank, whether the government can fund education or not.

“The contention of ASUU is that this country has abundant human and material resources that can guarantee the provision of education for its teeming population.

“People like Babalakin have refused to do what their counterparts are doing in developed countries where the rich are taxed to fund the education of the poor. But here in Nigeria, they are only interested in forcing the poor to suffer a double jeopardy and that is why we are canvassing that the government should fix the public university education system.

“It is a deliberate move by the rich to suppress the children of the poor from competing with their children and ASSUU will not succumb to the blackmail being perfected by Wale Babalakin,” Babalakin said.

He added that they had asked for his removal because ASUU would not go back to the negotiation table until Babalakin was removed, because he did not have the interest of Nigerians and the education sector at heart.

He accused Babalakin insensitivity to public universities because the majority of men like him have private universities and those who are not owners are already in the processes of obtaining a license to run a private university.

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