The Omoyele Sowore 2023 Campaign organization has lashed out at recent comments by former vice president and presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar on the lingering ASUU Strike.
In a statement Saturday, signed by the Spokesperson for Sowore 2023 Presidential Campaign organisation, Onyinye-Gandhi Chukwunyere, the organisation noted that Atiku’s claim that such ASUU strike would never happen under his administration or a PDP government was a “reflection of Atiku’s dishonesty with the Nigerian people.”
“We wish to remind Mr. Atiku that under the PDP government, with him as Vice President from 1999 to 2007, the nation’s education sector was woefully neglected and grossly under-funded.
“Indeed, the seeds of the current crisis in the sector were sown by that administration, and it was under its watch that the shameful trend of incessant ASUU strikes began.
“Atiku and his PDP oversaw about seven industrial actions by ASUU, including a major strike in 2003 which kept Nigerian students at home for about six months.
“The PDP’s disdain for the education of Nigerians was so pronounced that its budgetary allocations to education consistently remained below nine per cent of the national budget, and significantly off the 25% recommendation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation.
The group restated Sowore’s avowed commitment to boosting the education sector with robust plans of adequate funding for teaching, learning, and research infrastructure, as well as staff welfare.
“Sowore will make the aggressive investment in education necessary to propel the nation into the ambitious future we envisage,” the statement said