The Abubakar Baraje-led new Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, has commenced a seven-day fasting and prayer starting from today, in a bid to find a permanent solution to the impasse between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, following the strike action by the university lecturers.
To ensure its effectiveness, the new PDP has requested all its members worldwide to embark on the exercise, as it says the spiritual intervention was as a result of the concern of the Baraje-led PDP for the plight of parents and university students due to the continued closure of public universities.
The group also said that the move was designed to protest what it described as the Federal Government’s failure to keep the agreement it signed with the union in 2009.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Baraje has set up a four-man Committee to be chaired by Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State to advise the party on the best way to get the Federal Government’s negotiating committee and the leadership of ASUU to reach an agreement on the issues at stake and thus end the three-month-old strike.
Other members of the committee are Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Chinwo Ike, President of UNIPORT Alumni, and Mr. Timi Frank, the nPDP National Youth Leader.
“We sincerely solicit the patience of Nigerians while appealing to the Federal Government and the leadership of ASUU to end this imbroglio so that our children may go back to school instead of engaging in acts inimical to their future.
“The need for this has become urgent as reports reaching us indicate that many of these students have out of frustration and boredom turned to prostitution, armed robbery and other vices due to the prolonged strike,” the group said.
