The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, has attributed the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to the absence of the children of the elite in public universities.
Kachikwu, who spoke during a chat on Arise TV on issues concerning his party’s preparations for campaign, accused the Nigerian elite of not caring about the plight of the masses.
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He said, “We have to have a national charter that defines who we are as a people. Regardless of being an Igbo man or Yoruba or Igala or Hausa, what do we want for this country called Nigeria? How do we accept what unites all of us as a people?
“We also have to understand that all the problems we have in Nigeria, whether sectoral problems or infrastructural decay, are problems that were created by people. And [it is] because those people who rule us, those people who are up there don’t have feelings for those who are down there.
“It means that if I’m the president or governor or House of Representatives member or senator, if you don’t have light I shouldn’t also have light. It means that we are going to the same hospitals and drive on the same roads. It means we should share in our failures and in our successes. If we can get this to work in Nigeria, within six months, we would get things working.”
The presidential candidate further stated that if the children of the rich attended public schools, ASUU wouldn’t have been on strike.
“Imagine the child of Dangote having to go to a public school in Victoria Island. Imagine the child of Toni Elumelu, imagine the child of the Senate President going to the public school. Do you think ASUU would be on strike? Absolutely not. They would never be on strike,” he said.
