FATHER SUES ASUU OVER STRIKE

There seems to be no end to the Academic Staff Union of University
(ASUU) strike. Politicians, students and lecturers all seek for a
reasonable solution to this difficult situation, but to no avail. Some
young people who are affected by the strike support it, some have
expressed their disapproval. Nigeria's leader Goodluck Jonathan has
personally ordered to find a way out of this
educational-political-economic drama. Looks like the time has come for
the older generation to speak up on the matter.
His patience snapped, and he sued the ASUU, as well as eight others.
Mallam Dankano Garba Ahmed, a 71-year-old pensioner from Kano State,
in a suit submitted to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria
laments that the ongoing strike is negatively affecting his daughter's
education.
The elderly man accuses the union of frustrating his efforts to get
his daughter, Zainab Garba Ahmed, a 400 level Civil Engineering
student at the Bayero
University Kano, out of school within the determined time.
He says that the strike irritates him, as he earns "less than N30,000
as pension," and, furthermore, has other children he would wish to
support financially; this, he states, depends on whether his daughter
graduates successfully.
He adds that the strike is making his daughter, who is the second
plaintiff, idle, disorganised and psychologically disturbed.
"Her future and that of thousand others across the country are being
stagnated strategically by the ongoing strike," he decries.
The court is asked to determine if the 21 October 2009 agreement,
concluded between ASUU and the Federal Government, is valid, binding,
and not illegal.
If found otherwise, the pensioner asks the court to define whether
ASUU has a right to commence strike for failure or refusal of the
Federal Government to implement the said agreement.
He seeks perpetual injunction restraining ASUU from continuing with
the strike or taking any action whatsoever and by whatever means to
enforce the said agreement or compel the Federal Government to
implement it.
The case will hold at the Kano division of National Industrial Court.