As the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) lingers, the Vice-Chancellor of University of Ilorin (Unilorin), Kwara State, North West Nigeria, Professor Abdulganiyu Ambali, has advised the Nigerian government and ASUU to engage in constructive dialogue and reach a compromise regarding their hard-line postures so as to bring the strike to an end.
ASUU has been on strike since June 1, 2013 following the inability of the Nigerian government to honour the agreement it signed with the union in 2009.
Prof. Ambali, who spoke during a press conference to mark the commencement of the university's 29th convocation programme in Ilorin Monday said, "true principles of industrial labour relations should be adhered to if there must be an end in sight to the crisis."
According to him, "there should be meaningful dialogue between the parties in crisis. Again, the spirit of give and take must be played up. Once we embark on being our brother's keeper, justice will be done.
"Already, both groups are getting closer and in a couple of weeks or days, there will be a truce over the matter."
The university's convocation programme which will begin on on Tuesday, October 22, will lead to the graduation of 6,851 students, comprising 5,882 first degrees and 969 higher degrees. Of the higher degree graduands, 85 would be conferred with Postgraduate Diplomas, 788 Masters' Degrees and 181 Ph.Ds in various disciplines.
Forty-one of the graduands make the First Class, an improvement on the 37 the school produced last year. Also, 1,234 graduands bagged Second Class Upper Division, 2,882 made the Second Class Lower Division, while 1,193 and 189 got Third Class and Pass respectively.
Unilorin is the only Nigerian government-owned university that is not involved in the ongoing strike embarked upon by ASUU.
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