A frontline
Nigerian rights activist, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, is set to go on a hunger
strike as his contribution towards ending industrial action by the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has crippled the country’s public
universities since July 1.
ASUU is seeking to
force the federal government to fulfill an agreement reached in 2009 under
which government is supposed to have committed at half a trillion naira to the
country’s university sector. ASUU has rejected the N130 billion offered by the
Goodluck Jonathan administration, insisting on full implementation of the
agreement.
Writing on his
Facebook wall, Onwubiko, National Coordinator of the Abuja-based Human Rights
Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), said: “Watch out: I will announce the
date for commencement of a two-day hunger strike in support of ending ASUU
strike, reopening public universities and adequately funding them and for
lecturers engaging in sex-for-marks to be identified and prosecuted by
ICPC/and/or EFCC. When the date is disclosed, I will solicit your support and
prayers.”
Contacted this
morning, Onwubiko, who is also a Columnist with News Express, said that there
is no going back on the hunger strike. He disclosed that it would hold “next
week Tuesday/Wednesday,” adding: “I will issue a press release today.”
October 17th, 2013
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