By Joshua Hussain
An education expert and National Coordinator of Concerned Parents and Educators Initiative, a two-hundred-thousand-member multinational educational intervention group, Mrs Kemi Koleowo, has expressed an entirely divergent thought about the ASUU-FG strife.
In an interview with Nigerian NewsDirect, the Ibadan-based academic decried the heightened levels of insincerity and ulterior motives preventing both parties from striking a peaceful compromise.
She claimed that the real reasons behind the interminable disputes are yet to be divulged by both parties.
“I’d like the case of ASUU and the Federal Government to a dispute between husband and wife. No matter how much you try to mediate between them, unless they really open up and tell you the real issue of contention, every effort to restore peace will fail.
“ASUU isn’t fighting for the students or system. If they were, they wouldn’t be the same ones creating problems within the same system. They wouldn’t be the ones making things difficult for the students whose interests they pretend to protect.
“A lot of ASUU members have been found in the practice of collecting money from students just to supervise their projects. Students are coerced to cook for their supervisors like at a party.”
Mrs Kemi Koleowo further bemoaned the deplorable state of Nigerian University hostels. She also expressed concern over the dilapidated state of some lecture venues in some Nigerian Universities, ultimately raising the question of the relevance of ASUU over the years, and why they should expect the government to pump in more funds into meeting their lavish requests.
Kemi proposed a workable solution to the age-long dispute between the Federal Government and Tertiary institutions.
“The Federal Government must cease to meddle into the internal affairs of Tertiary Institutions. The various institutions must be granted autonomy to control the utilization of funds, and other administrative and managerial issues.
“The main concern of the government should be to provide support to individuals looking to get higher education.
“In our days, there was no UTME. Every institution had control over their admission process. This system should be resuscitated.”