Mr. James Iniama, a leader of the People’s Democratic party in Akwa Ibom State, criticized the Federal Government’s handling of the current Academic Staff Union of Universities strike as being insensitive.
Whatever justification the Federal Government had for continuing to ignore the deadlock it has had with ASUU for more over five months, according to him, was irrelevant and unacceptable.
Iniama, who ran for governor of the state but lost in the primary, made this statement while answering questions from reporters at his home on Wednesday.
He said ” It’s very very unfortunate. The problem I have is, if you are my friend – my real friend – and we have a disagreement, most likely two of us will not be telling people the actual reason we disagreed.
“So, for the dispute between ASUU and the FG of Nigeria, I don’t think we have heard the truth yet on the issue but whatever, it is irrelevant, and for me, the Federal Government is insensitive.
“Whatever ASUU has done that is right or wrong, as far as I’m concerned, I hold the FG of Nigeria responsible for where our sons and daughter are today. Sitting at home for the fifth month is just not acceptable.”
According to social media posts, the FG must be a prankster and unfair to have given N610 million to a research institute in Malaysia, he claimed, adding that the APC-led administration must consider ending the strike to be expedient.
“I was reading yesterday on the social media that this same Federal Government donated to a Research institution in Malaysia, six hundred and ten million naira. For God’s sake, are we jokers? It is very unfair.
“The FG must find it absolutely urgent. They must see it as a duty to our sons and daughters to resolve with ASUU and let our children go back to school. That’s where I stand. We owe them a duty to get them educated.”
The PDP chieftain discussed the party’s ongoing Reconciliation Committee, saying that he had anticipated the committee to mark the start of the party’s re-engineering process but was unhappy that it had yet to produce anything.
He added, “I had expected that the reconciliation committee would be the beginning process of re-engineering the structure of the PDP and the state. I had thought so. The reason I speak in the past tense is that we are drawing closer to the election and I haven’t seen our party engage in an activity that will reassure the people of Akwa Ibom State that they do not need to fret or worry in spite of what the other political parties.
But so far, I haven’t seen us take advantage of that reconciliatory initiative. Yes, the reconciliation committee is made up of eminent Akwa Ibom persons.
“We had that meeting but I want to talk not as a politician, but as a christian politician. I would say that we haven’t yet been reconciled. I’m praying that my party will get organised and deal with issues that are confronting us.”
