Accede to ASUU’s demands, cleric tells FG

The moderator of Gideon I Baptist Association under the Lagos East Baptist Conference, Rev. Israel Kristilere, has appealed to the federal government to meet the demands of striking lecturers. He said this is necessary to save the tertiary education sector and redeem the future of the nation. Kristilere spoke last week in his address at the 3rd quarterly session of the association in Ikosi-Ketu, Lagos. The theme of the session was building witnessing families: The necessity for spiritual growth. The cleric said what the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are asking for is nothing compared to the fat allowances of elected government functionaries. According to him: “One is certainly weary to reprimand ASUU when one genuinely compares what the lecturers are demanding with what our elected officers corner to themselves in the name of entitlements. “It is no longer secret what our senators and legislators earn yearly is one of the highest in the world while the minimum wage for the ordinary Nigerian is one of the lowest in the world.” He pleaded with the federal to quickly accede to the demands of ASUU. Kristilere also kicked against the proposed increase in the tariff on imported vehicles, describing it as a “step in the wrong direction”. The move, he said, should be delayed for another five years until made-in-Nigerians have flooded the market. He called on the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to dissolve the two factions in the Lagos State chapter of the body, which has been in crisis for over 13 years. Both factions, the Senior Pastor of Shepherdill Baptist Church Obanikoro said, have overstayed their welcome and should be replaced with a new CAN approved by the national body. On the re-classification of schools in Osun State, Kristilere said the merger of mission schools with others is “insensitive to the nature, heritage and religious situation of the country.” He urged Osun State to return mission schools to their original owners in the interest of equity and fairness. Culled from the Nation Newspaper