To reopen varsities without concrete resolution reached was very dumb —Shehu Sani

A former lawmaker, Shehu Sani, has weighed into the scuffle between the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which had resulted into the more than seven-month-old strike by university lecturers.

Sani faulted the decision of the Federal Government asking vice chancellors to reopen public varsities following the Industrial Court order.

In a letter made public to journalists on Monday, signed by the Director, Finance and Accounts of the NUC, Sam Onazi, on behalf of the Executive Secretary of the commission, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, the FG had instructed all vice-chancellors, pro-Chancellors and chairmen of governing councils of public universities to re-open schools.

However, in another circular tagged NUC/ES/138/Vol.64/136, which was also signed by the National Universities Commission Director of Finance and Account, Sam Onazi, the Commission withdrew the order.

The withdrawal was percieved to allow more negotiations between the Federal Government and striking lecturers.

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Sani, who reacted to the development via his Twitter handle on Tuesday, slammed the Federal Governement for giving the order in the first place.

He tagged it as the “dumbest” attempt to reopen public universities without key areas addressed and concrete resolution reached.

The former senator, therefore, called for the intervention of the former Heads of State in order to resolve the lingering strike.

“Asking the VCs to reopen the universities without a concrete resolution reached is the dumbest thing to do. The reversal is acknowledged. I call on the former Heads of state to step in and mediate an end to this tango”, the tweet read.

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