“We’re suing the Buhari administration over its violation of poor children’s rights to education and equal protection.”
The government of President Muhammadu Buhari has been threatened with legal action for violating the rights of underprivileged children to equal protection and education, according to the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The group called the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strikes a “crime against humanity.”
To further hammer home its demands, ASUU has been on strike for over five months.
Earned Academic Allowances, the implementation of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), and promotion backlogs are among the demands of the striking lecturers.
After meeting with Prof. Nimi Briggs’ renegotiation committee, ASUU President Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke said that they had not yet heard from the government. The committee is anticipated to renegotiate with all of the striking unions and analyze the draft proposed 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement.
The Briggs renegotiation committee has been meeting with the unions since April 2022 to discuss the many problems of the 2009 agreement. However, SERAP on Friday in a post on its verified Twitter handle asserted that the ASUU strike which has kept poor children at home while the children of Nigeria’s politicians attend private schools is a crime against humanity.
The post reads, “The ASUU strike which has kept poor children at home while the children of Nigeria’s politicians attend private schools, is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
“We’re suing the Buhari administration over its violation of poor children’s rights to education and equal protection.”
Save Public Education Campaign, a civil society organization, had earlier urged parents, students, and lecturers on strike at universities nationwide to prepare for large-scale protests to pressure the Nigerian government into taking the necessary action to put an end to the university lecturers’ strike. The organization also demanded the prompt payment of all wages that had been withheld from academic lecturers on strike and unions nationwide.
The organization has criticized Buhari’s administration for squandering enormous sums of money and resources on the nomination forms and primaries of political parties. It also criticized the administration for prioritizing politics above matters involving education and the future of Nigerian youngsters.
Ms Bello, there convener of the group, called the government’s response to the professors’ predicament, which touched on concerns of inadequate welfare, as foolish, ludicrous, and unacceptable. She bemoaned the time that had been wasted by students at public colleges throughout the nation, which, according to her, amounted to a full two and a half years during the Buhari administration.
