Groups remember Fawehinmi, back ASUU's demand

Some groups, including the Nigerian
Conscience Party, on Wednesday asked
the Federal Government to accede to
the demand of the striking members of
the Academic Staff Union of
Universities and put an end to the rot
in the educational system by
implementing the late Chief Gani
Fawehinmi's recommendations.
The groups made the call in Lagos
while announcing the 4th Year
Remembrance for the late Fahewinmi,
a frontline civil liberty lawyer and
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who died at
71 on September 5, 2009.
President of the organiser, the Gani
Fawehinmi Memorial Organisation, Mr.
Ayodele Akele, said the planned events
for Saturday and September 5 were
meant to celebrate the virtues which
the deceased "lived and died for".
GAFAMORG, along with other groups,
including the Campaign for Democracy
and the Women Arise for Change
Initiative, in remembering Gani,
lamented the decay in the nation's
educational system.
Akele expressed worry over "the utter
contradiction of abundance and
poverty" in the nation, adding that
implementing Gani's positions, which
he canvassed until his death was the
only way to deal "decisively" with the
rot in the educational sector.
He therefore called on government at
all levels to, among others, implement
"the universal policy that regards
education as a right and not a
privilege" and ensure genuine
academic autonomy, through direct
statutory allocations and democratic
management of the institutions.
He also called for a national summit on
education through which government at
all levels and other interest groups
could brainstorm on the problems with
the nation's educational system.
"GAFAMORG supports unions in the
educational sector (ASUU and others),
students and parents in the current
nationwide protest to save public
education," Akele said.
President of Campaign for Democracy
and Women Arise for Change Initiative,
Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, regretted that
four years after Gani's death, his
dream for afunctional education
system had not been achieved.
She said theonly way to end the
impasse in the nation's public
universities was for the Federal
Government to accede to the ASUU's
demand.
She said, "For the sake of integrity,
consistency and patriotism, I think
there must be animmediate resolution
of the crisis in the education sector and
the only way it can be resolved is that
ASUU's demand must be met; there is
no other way to it. You cannot shiftthe
goal post in the middle of a game."