ASUU to sponsor ‘bring back your children’ bill in National Assembly

The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said on Thursday the union would soon sponsor a bill at the National Assembly to force privileged Nigerians whose children are studying abroad to bring back their wards to study in the country’s institutions.

Osodeke, who disclosed this at a one-day seminar on the State of the Nation held at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, said non-governmental organizations, Students Unions and academics all over the country will be mobilized to the National Assembly to ensure the passage of the bill titled: “Bring ack your children

He said: “Today, the leaders of this country and those who control our wealth have completely abandoned education. Today, this country is reaping the work of our abandoning education and what do they do as an alternative?

“They have created avenues for themselves in such a way that having abandoned and killed our education, they look for somewhere else where people invested in education to send their children, their wards, and relations. We are having one proposition we have put forward. We are going to storm the National Assembly with a bill.

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“That bill will be titled ‘Bring back your children and we are going to mobilise the students, the NGOs and all of us will storm the National Assembly and we will ensure that that Bill is passed.

“Their children must be in Nigerian schools whether primary, secondary, university or colleges of education. When the bill is out, we will mobilize the students’ unions, the academics, and the NGOs.”

The ASUU President also decried the worsening insecurity in Nigeria and urged the government to address the problem.

Osodeke added: “Many of our colleagues are now afraid to travel by road. Many people are even afraid to visit their children in schools while some are afraid to send their children to schools.

“We have gotten to a stage that nobody is safe whether you are going by the road, by air, by sea, or by train. You are all aware that recently, the bandits almost derailed a train. All of us need to work hard to change these trajectories.”

By Yemi Kanji

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