ASUU laments brain drain from Nigeria’s education sector due to strike, other issues

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Professor Emmanuel Osodeke revealed, on Thursday, that many lecturers in Nigerian universities had left the nation to pursue professions overseas as the Federal Government struggles to find a lasting solution to the ongoing crisis in the education sector.

Prof Osodeke made this disclosure while fielding questions from journalists at the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

He said: “We don’t have a certain statistic but a large number of our members have moved out of the country not because they hate this country but because of the way they are being treated. There’s no country in the world where their academics will go on strike and you think the best weapon is to seize their salary.

“When we were on the strike, lecturers in the United Kingdom went on strike, it didn’t take two days for them to resolve it, the Ghanaians went on strike and they resolved it. But here, they felt nonchalant and you know why? Because they do not commit, their children are not here, they are not Nigerians, their children are abroad, and their families are abroad.

Read also: QuickRead: Another extension of ASUU strike. Four other stories we tracked and why they matter

“We see the children of President, children of Senators, children of Governors having their convocation and you see other Governors coming to rejoice with them, so you have leaders who do not have any feelings for the children of the poor.

“ASUU will go as far till they (FG) are ready to answer. We also appeal to Nigerians, the beauty of this, is that their lives are in their hands. In the next five to six months from now, there will be an election, they should hold their PVC, and all those who have subjected them to this crisis should be voted out. It is their right, they voted them in, they can’t be at home while their children will be enjoying education outside the country. This is their right they should use their PVC.”

ASUU, which has been on strike for over five months, is demanding among other things, the full implementation of the 2009 agreement it signed with the Federal Government.

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