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- Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, Prof, Julius charged VC of Nigerian universities to work to put an end to the strike.
- The governor said it was time for a changed of the university lecturers to start appreciating the fact that teaching is both a profession and a vocation.
- Mimiko noted that the Nigerian universities deserved improved funding in spite of the overriding challenges of the various sectors
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Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko; and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof, Julius Okojie, have charged Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities to work to put an end to the regime of strikes by university lecturers in the country.
Mimiko and Okogie spoke at the opening of the 28th Conference of the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities on Tuesday in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
At the conference, stakeholders were united in their conclusion that all were losers in every given strike action embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The conference, hosted by the Federal University of Technology, Akure, drew participants from the 129 public and private universities in Nigeria and other organisations, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and the National University Commission.
Mimiko, while declaring the conference open, said the state of university education in the country had been further worsened by the four-month-old ASUU strike.
The governor said it was time for a re-orientation of the university lecturers to start appreciating the fact that teaching is both a profession and a vocation.
He said, “Therefore, teaching should be engaged in only by those with a special call, who want to impart knowledge to others on the sole grounds that they are happy doing so and because they believe that they have a special interest or ability to do so.
“A university teacher should be seen as one who is developing his students to become future leaders through quality education and high moral character.”
Mimiko noted that the Nigerian universities deserved improved funding in spite of the overriding challenges of the various sectors of our polity.
He said that since there was a huge difference between the resources available to the proprietors of state and federal universities, it was not just to subject the workers on the two platforms to the same reward system.
Okojie, who was represented by the visiting professor of the NUC, Prof Sola Akinrinade, said that the Nigerian University System was facing a major operational break due to the ongoing industrial action by members of ASUU.
“The impact of strike actions is significant and they affect not only students who are our primary product but staff as well,” he said.
He appealed to Vice Chancellors to work to ensure that disagreements between the Federal Government and ASUU were settled as early as possible before they resulted into total breakdown in the public university system.
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