Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke of the Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia, has commended the Senate for passing the University Miscellaneous Provision Act on the retiring age of professors.
Osodeke said that passing the law was one of the necessary steps toward resolving the ongoing ASUU strike.
The Senate at its plenary on Wednesday passed the bill that seeks to extend the retirement age of university professors from 65 years to 70 years.
The Senate President David Mark, after the passage, said that it had become imperative for ASUU to call off the strike and go back to the classrooms.
But Osodeke, a former Chairman of ASUU, said in Umuahia that the move was not enough to suspend the strike.
He said that though the Senate had shown good cause towards the resolution of the ASUU/FGN face-off, the passage of the bill was just one of the issues that led to the impasse.
The professor said that members of the academia had been canvassing for the upward review of retirement age of professors since 2009.
He said, “I hope that President Goodluck Jonathan will be persuaded to follow the path of reason and assent to the bill.
“But the major issue that led to the strike has not been resolved and until that is done I doubt if the strike will be suspended.”
The professor of Soil Science said that the major issue, which bordered on funding of the universities in the country, was yet to be addressed.
He regretted that universities in the country were grossly underfunded, adding that the situation had led to the dilapidation of facilities at various institutions of higher learning.
Osodeke said it was shameful that our country that prided itself as the giant of Africa, could not boast of world class universities.
He said the latest rating of universities in Africa; it was shocking that no university in the country was among the first three.
Osodeke said that the academia was fighting for a good course, adding that they were committed to the advancement of the universities in the country.
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