Lawmakers Urge ASUU to End Strike As a Mark of Honour for Iyayi

 

The Lagos State House of Assembly has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to consider immediate end to the over four months strike it currently embarked upon as mark of honour for Dr. Festus Iyayi, who died in a ghastly motor accident on Tuesday.Iyayi was on his way to attend the enlarged National Executive Committee meeting of ASUU when he met his untimely death in an accident that involved the convoy of the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, in Lokoja.The House in a statement signed by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy, Security and Publicity, Hon. Segun Olulade, noted that “since Iyayi was on a mission for a peaceful resolution to end the strike, the Union should consider ending the strike in honour of their late comrade.”

The statement further noted that the nation is currently undergoing too much travails under the present Federal Government as a result of neglect on basic infrastructures such as road that claimed the life of such literary icon. It also noted that the Okene-Lokoja Road is a death trap that has claimed thousands of lives of innocent Nigerians before the ugly incident.The House, however, cautioned on reckless driving attitudes of convoys on the entourage of most states’ Governors and politicians, urging them to take a que from modest use of convoy by the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola.

The House therefore appealed to the Union to consider the plights of Nigerian students and the need to restore education to its lost glory by ending the strike to save the education sector, as it expressed fears that “the circumstance that led to Iyayi’s death, if care is not taken, could take a new dimension of agitation and spur reflex actions from the aggrieved lecturers, thereby extending further the strike that was already close to being called off as at the time of Iyayi’s death.”

The lawmakers frowned at persistent neglects on the education sector, which often result to regular strikes in the country, saying “we can get it right on education and other sectors only if the right things will be done as at when due,” the statement read in part.The House also sympathised with the family of the late hero as well as the entire academic community in Nigeria.

This report was prepared by our reporter in Lagos.