ANAMBRA STUDENTS, STAKEHOLDERS BEG LECTURERS

By NBF News

Students union and alumni of Anambra State University (ANSU) have called on the striking lecturers of the institution to return to classrooms in the interest of the students. During a joint press conference in Awka, Anambra State capital over the weekend, spokesman of the group and a former student, Nnamdi Nweke, said after wide consultations with the management of the institution, the state government and the lecturers over the state government's offer, the students urged the lecturers to accept the offer and return to their jobs. 'It is our strong belief that as the fortune of the state university increases, the state government will also increase subvention to the university. This means that salary and other conditions of service would continue to receive adequate attention,' Nweke said.

The state government had during the course of negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) initially increased its monthly subvention to the school from N50m to N81m and increased it to N90m while the school offered to contribute N70m to bring the total amount accruing to the institution to N160m per month. However, ASUU insisted on the full implementation of its agreement with the Federal Government, which the South-east governors had said they were not part of. The group therefore urged the lecturers to accept the offer to end the misery suffered by the students and their parents.

While expecting that the strike would come to an end they hoped there would be no need for any unnecessary confrontation by the students against the institution's authorities as such would benefit no one, especially given the fact that ANSU was the youngest of all the five South-east state owned oniversities. 'We do not intend to go to war with anybody but we would rather appeal to them to return to work,' Nweke said. According to them if the strike continued for four more months, the students stood to lose one academic session while Law students would experience a disrupted programme.

The lecturers in the five South-east states of Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia and Imo had on July 22 embarked on strike to protest the new wage structure approved by the Federal Government for its university teachers.