Plans are currently on between the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to jointly hold a national conference aimed at addressing the economic challenges that has led the country to recession.
President of ASUU, Prof. Abiodun Ogunyemi dropped the hint yesterday on the sideline of a symposium organised by the University of Lagos, UNILAG, chapter of the union.
Many activists were in attendance at the event with a theme “Three decades of neo-liberalism and the Nigerian economy.”
They include Prof. Omotoye Olorode, Prof. Ndubisi Nwokoma, Prof. Momoh Abubakar, Dr. Mustapha Akinkunmi and Dr. Dipo Fashina, among others.
The Vice-Chancellor, UNILAG, Prof. Rahamon Bello was also at the event.
The ASUU boss, who blamed the current economic crisis on lack of foresight by successive governments and political class, refused to disclose the details of the conference but said it would soon be made known to the public.
“We hope at the end of the day and very soon, issues affecting the economy including the political angle to it, will be dissected and workable remedies proffered.
“There is hunger in OSASONAthe land. Things are no longer working. It is like the political class does not have a sense of direction again,” he stressed.
He said the university lecturers were worried about the state of the economy, which they believe had largely been influenced by neo-liberalism tendencies over the years.
According to him, the economic challenges confronting Nigeria requires the intervention of every stakeholders and it is the reason behind the coming together of ASUU and NLC to address issues plaguing the economy by proffering solutions to them.
“We can no longer as a country affords to continue to follow the dictate of external forces such as the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the World Bank to run our economy.
“Policies of those institutions largely encourage neo-liberalism,” he added.
Prof Ogunyemi noted that many would rather advocate for development-state approach which has proven useful in many Asian countries.
“Neo-libralism has failed Nigeria. What some of us are rather advocating for is a new concept of development state. That was the part followed by many of the Asian tigers. It was not as if IMF and World Bank didn’t try to penetrate them but these countries rebuffed them.
“Such political will is lacking among our leaders and that is why they can be pushed here and there.
“The development state involves harnessing talof the people and utilise them for the development of the country. It is about developing the people so as to develop the state,” he explained.
Earlier in his remark, former ASUU President and Chairman of the occasion, Dipo Fashina said it was high time Nigeria join hands with other nations to do away with neo-liberalism which is now a dying concept.
He said anything about neo-liberalism promotes exploitation of the masses by a few people.
NATIONAL MIRROR
