By Oboh Linus, Lafia
The Nasarawa State Government says it is intensifying efforts toward an amicable resolution of the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike at Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), to enable students to return to class.
The Secretary to the State Government, Dr Labaran Magaji, disclosed this while receiving the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in his office on Wednesday in Lafia.
Magaji, while sympathising with the students of the state-owned university over the ongoing strike, assured them that the government has increased efforts for swift resolution of the issue with the striking lecturers.
“I can assure you that, as a listening government that we have under the leadership of Gov. Abdullahi Sule, such concerns are going to be resolved sooner than later.
“The Governor is not sleeping over it. He is intensifying efforts to see that this issue is resolved so that students can go back to class,” he added.
The Secretary to the State Government called on Nigerian students to shun materialism and social vices, noting that they should remain ideologically consistent.
He lamented what he described as the erosion of true “comradeship” among young people, blaming it on a tendency for activists to go silent once they receive personal benefits.
He stressed that true comradeship requires ideology, sacrifice and consistency.
The SSG recounted his own struggles in secondary school and university, including attending classes without a uniform and commuting with no transport fare; the experience, he said, shaped his values and informed his decision to give scholarships to indigent students.
“Don’t be materialistic, don’t be greedy. Once you take this off you, you are automatically a rich person because richness comes with contentment,” he said.
Speaking on politics and governance, he urged students to shun what he called “politics of primordial sentiments” based on tribe, religion, and indigene, saying such divisions destroy societies.
He highlighted infrastructure projects completed in the last three years, including new roads and overhead bridges in Lafia, Keffi and Karu LGAs, the Akwanga underpass and other areas.
He credited infrastructural development to President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms that bring about increased revenue and Gov Sule’s prudent management of resources.
Earlier, speaking, the leader of the delegation, Comrade Asmawu Omeze, NANS National Treasurer,
said they were in the state as part of a campus tour, not to agitate, but to verify the impact of government policies on students firsthand.
She commended the Secretary to the Nasarawa State Government, Dr Labaran Magaji, for his consistency, integrity and commitment to youth and women development through empowerment.
Omeze also applauded Magaji for giving scholarships to 1000 indigents students and said
Feedback from schools and beneficiaries confirmed that the SSG’s interventions have gone a long way in supporting the students.
“We are on a campus tour to check our campuses, their well-being, their welfare and everything, and also to pay a special visit to you, not for anything, but for the thing we have heard.
“Not just because we heard it; we saw people who are beneficiaries of it,” she said.
She also delivered a solidarity message from the NANS National President, Comrade Akinteye Babatunde-Afeez, describing
him as “ever ready and prepared” and actively engaging institutions across the country. (NAN)