ASUU Strike: Bishops Offer to Mediate between FG, Lecturers

The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has offered to mediate in the protracted rift between the federal government and the Academic Staff of Union Universities (ASUU) over the implementation of the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement between the two parties.

Rising from its 2013 second plenary meeting in Otukpo, Benue State, yesterday, the bishops observed that the ongoing rift had crippled the education system in the country, and urged the federal government and the leadership of ASUU to come down from their stern positions and resolve their differences in the interest of the students. In a communiqué, signed by the President of CBCN, Most Reverend Ignatius Kaigama, who doubles as the bishop of the Archdiocese of Jos, and the Secretary, Most Reverend Williams Avenga, who is also the bishop of Gboko, and made available to journalists in Jos, Plateau State, the bishops expressed regret that university students have been made to roam about the streets, following the indefinite strike.

The clerics stated that they could no longer afford to remain indifferent, while the future of the youths was being mortgaged. The communiqué said: “We are disturbed by the crippling effect of the strike. As stakeholders in the education of our youths, we cannot stay aloof. We appeal to the federal government and ASUU to take the higher ground of mutual exchange and shifting of grounds for the collective responsibility of saving our university education and getting our youths back to the classrooms. “We, the Catholic Bishops willingly offer ourselves as a conference to mediate in order to bring this deadlock to an end and usher in a harmonious, viable and sustainable environment for university learning.” The bishops also lamented the denial of Catholics to acquire land to establish chaplaincy by some university authorities, adding that the action had contributed to the weakening of sound moral in the lives of the youths, who are the future leaders. The clerics called on the federal government to foster religious freedom by allocating lands and removing all barriers to acquiring
lands for religious worships.

On security, the CBCN congratulated the federal government on the bold measures adopted in combating the menace of the Boko Haram sect, which had reduced the acts of terrorism in the country, especially in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe States.

While reiterating the need for good governance, the conference noted that the quality of life in Nigeria does not reflect the level of the country's immense human and natural resources. The clerics also called for higher observance in the right and respect to lives and condemned attempts to introduce unwholesome values to the society by foreign agencies in their campaign for abortion.