A frontline Nigerian rights activist, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, is set to go on a hunger strike as his contribution towards ending industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has crippled the country’s public universities since July 1.
ASUU is seeking to force the federal government to fulfill an agreement reached in 2009 under which government is supposed to have committed at half a trillion naira to the country’s university sector. ASUU has rejected the N130 billion offered by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, insisting on full implementation of the agreement.
Writing on his Facebook wall, Onwubiko, National Coordinator of the Abuja-based Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), said: “Watch out: I will announce the date for commencement of a two-day hunger strike in support of ending ASUU strike, reopening public universities and adequately funding them and for lecturers engaging in sex-for-marks to be identified and prosecuted by ICPC/and/or EFCC. When the date is disclosed, I will solicit your support and prayers.”
Contacted this morning, Onwubiko, who is also a Columnist with News Express, said that there is no going back on the hunger strike. He disclosed that it would hold “next week Tuesday/Wednesday,” adding: “I will issue a press release today.”
