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We Must Address 'Little Challenges Before' They Get Worse — NUC Boss

July 2, 2014 5:15 PM

Only a regular stakeholders' meeting can save Nigeria's educational sector from incessant strike actions which have become a recurring decimal in Nigeria.

The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie, speaking on Monday, June 30th, when he received members of the Senate Committee on Education, said frequent strike actions can only be forestalled by regular dialogue.

"People will be amazed if they knew how that ASUU crisis, which crippled the university system for almost a year, ended.

"That is why I said we need to always engage the unions both in war times and peace times...," he said

Okojie noted that the government efforts in the educational sector,, like the N1 trillion universities intervention fund, will make no impact with constant instability.

He therefore urged the lawmakers, who were on an oversight function to the commission, to establish a forum for dialogue between the NUC and the universities academic unions.

"This way, we can address these little challenges before they escalate,’’ Okojie said.

He warned that strike actions would continue to cripple the university system as long as frictions between government and the universities remain unaddressed.