ASUU Strike: Baraje-led PDP Embarks On Fasting And Praying, Berates FG For Not Honouring Agreement

UJA—WORRIED by the prolonged strike by
members of the
The Abubakar Baraje-led new Peoples
Democratic Party, nPDP, has commenced a
seven-day fasting and prayer starting from
today, in a bid to find a permanent solution
to the impasse between the federal
government and the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, following the strike action
by the university lecturers.
To ensure its effectiveness, the new PDP  has
requested all its members worldwide to
embark on the exercise, as it says the
spiritual intervention was as a result of the
concern of the Baraje-led PDP for the plight
of parents and university students due to the
continued closure of public universities.
The group also said that the move was
designed to protest what it described as the
Federal Government’s failure to keep the
agreement it signed with the union in 2009.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Baraje has set up a four-
man Committee to be chaired by Governor
Babangida Aliyu of Niger State to advise the
party on the best way to get the Federal
Government’s negotiating committee and the
leadership of ASUU to reach an agreement on
the issues at stake and thus end the three-
month-old strike.
Other members of the committee are
Governor  Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State,
Chinwo Ike, President of UNIPORT Alumni,
and Mr. Timi Frank, the nPDP National Youth
Leader.
“We sincerely solicit the patience of Nigerians
while appealing to the Federal Government
and the leadership of ASUU to end this
imbroglio so that our children may go back
to school instead of engaging in acts inimical
to their future.
“The need for this has become urgent as
reports reaching us indicate that many of
these students have out of frustration and
boredom turned to prostitution, armed
robbery and other vices due to the prolonged
strike,” the group said.