President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerian students that he would speak with lecturers in a bid to end the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Buhari gave the assurance on Thursday, January 3, when the executive committee of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) paid him a visit at the state house in Abuja.
The president also called on labour unions to allow his administration concentrate on fixing infrastructure in the country, The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Buhari said having been in positions of leadership at various stages in life, he means well for Nigerians and indeed, workers.
“I am totally loyal to this country. Whatever I do is in the interest of the ordinary people especially those who do not have the benefit of being educated like you, and are just trusting whoever is leading them,” he said.
Buhari expressed gratitude to the students for appreciating some of the things his administration had put in place and called on them to mobilise support for government, as it strives to make Nigeria better.
He revealed that his administration had performed creditably well in the past three and half years in the area of infrastructure development.
The president said: “ In three and a half years, we have improved tremendously on what we met. We are trying to do infrastructure.
“No matter which part of the country you come from, you will see the efforts we are making in terms of roads; we are trying to fix rails, we are trying to do power, through the use of gas and solar.
“If you note what we have done in these three and a half years, you will not regret voting this administration into power.”
Buhari also stated that Nigeria was doing very well in agriculture as the country was about to attain food sufficiency and security.
While calling on the students to continue to plead with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the President assured that he would speak with the lecturers’ on ending the strike.
He said that he had explained in details while presenting the 2019 budget estimates, the earnings and expenditure and therefore expected the elite to understand the position of the government on certain issues.
According to him, it is the responsibility of the government to look after the employed as well as the unemployed.
The president urged the youths to start preparing themselves to lead the country.
“There is a tendency for you to think that you can do better than anybody, but it is very good for you to know the facts that leadership entails,’’ he said
Earlier in their remarks, the students, led by the president, Mr Danielson Akpan, expressed appreciation of the efforts of the administration, especially in the transformation of the transportation sector as well as the decimation of terrorists in the North East.
They, however, requested the government to intervene in the incessant strikes in the education sector and to involve more youths in governance.
The students’ leaders also enjoined the government to look into the plight of students in different institutions who were expelled for ‘political’ reasons.
All Comments