Our Public Universities Are Still Unsafe For Reopening – ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Monday, has said it was still unsafe at this time for the nation’s public universities to reopen for academic activities.

It also said even at that, the union is still on its industrial action which it commenced since March nationwide and would only call it off when demands are addressed by the government.

The Lagos Zone coordinator of the union, who is a lecturer at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, (FUNAAB), Prof Olusiji Sowande, gave this position in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday evening.

According to him, there is nothing different on the ground from what it used to be before COVID-19 in the nation’s public universities nor any noticeable concrete steps taking to address the terrible conditions that most of the universities are.

He said student’s hostels are not only still inadequate, there is just no significant facilities on ground to carry out the physical distancing guidelines in large and crowded lecture rooms.

Besides that, he said, water and electricity supply, among other needs, are also still unreliable and that is why reopening of tertiary institutions for now without taking concrete steps to address these issues would be suicidal.

He said it was even unheard of that government could make arrangements for special bailout funds for airline operators and other private entities without considering the same for public universities.