Former education minister, Dr. Oby Ezekwesile, today in Abuja threw a challenge to the federal government to choose between rebuilding the university system and maintaining standards or allowing the current rot to continue.
She also says that the missing link in this long drawn face-off is the lack of acceptance of the importance of dialogue in this kind of dispute as there is absolutely no point of disagreement as to the necessity to rebuild the structure of the university system.
According to her:
“The university system is not just about the physical structure, it’s about the quality of the faculty and that is where the conversation as to what kind of university system we want to run (comes in)”
She stated that government and ASUU, so far seem to have failed to find a ground for principled negotiation. Therefore it is no longer a matter between the two parties; it has become a matter between the people of Nigeria and the government and ASUU.
“I think the citizens must now demand that there must be a neutral approach at identifying what will be the solution to the kind of university system that we want to run”
She concluded “there’s no time because the rest of the world has used knowledge as a basis to completely leave us behind the lower rungs of economic development”.
