Intervention finds this publishable in full on the strength of the cogency of the outing. The 3rd, 4th and 5th paragraphs should invite the attention of all parties to the impasse, whether for or against the on-going strike action by the academics. Intervention will automatically publish equally well argued counter-positions. The text goes as follows, unedited:
ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES (ASUU), UNIVERSITY OF BENIN BRANCH
Re: ASUU UNIBEN Backs Out of Strike
The leadership of the University of Benin Branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has read with amusement, a piece of information purporting that the University of Benin has backed out of the ongoing ASUU strike and that the University resumes normal activities on September 4, 2022.
We urge the general public to disregard the laughable piece of deliberate misinformation and state unequivocally that *ASUU UNIBEN is irrevocably committed to executing the current strike to its logical conclusion,* or until such a time that the National Executive Council (NEC) of our Union deems it fit to direct otherwise.
The Branch is more than aware that the intelligentsia have a moral obligation to rescue public tertiary education from the grip of retrogressive forces in the corridors of power who *insist on imposing forced labour, paying slave wages, and pricing access to quality education out of the reach of the ordinary Nigerian child.
ASUU UNIBEN is convinced that these forces need to be checked for the sake of posterity, and that the time is now. For us, it is “no retreat, no surrender!”
We have no doubts whatsoever that the verdict of history will be on the side of ASUU.*
Aluta continua! Victoria acerta!
Ray N. Chikogu
(Chairman, ASUU UNIBEN)
31st August, 2022
