Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU of the University of Benin on Thursday described the abduction of four lecturers and eleven students of the institution as a sign of failed National security which has the capacity of crippling the entire education system which is already traumatized.
ASUU in a statement jointly signed by its chairman, Professor Monday Omoregie and secretary, Dr Fabian Amaechina called on security agencies to rise up to the responsibility of securing the Nigerian community because development will be impossible without security.
It said the unseriousness with which the security apparatus is treating matters of National security is alarming and must not be allowed to continue.
The union added that this type of undesirable development has the tendency of crippling research, which is at the heart of development.
“It is a virus that needs to be exterminated because of the negative multiplier effect it can have on education and the larger development of the nation.
If researches and field works cannot go on because of the challenge of insecurity, then the educational sector and the whole concept of national development will be on borrowed time,” said ASUU.
The union stated further that apart from having the negative potential of lowering the quality of manpower produced by the universities,
“the larger picture is that it has the capacity the crippling the entire educational system. The larger consequences will be utterly grievous”.
READ ALSO: BREAKING: Senate okays Buhari’s $22.7bn loan request
ASUU recalled that it has repeatedly called on the government to pay adequate attention to the educational sector but the call has fallen on deaf ears to the detriment of the nation.
According to ASUU, the added dimension of the onslaught by criminals against university staff and students deepens the crisis confronting the Nigerian educational system.
The union, however, recognised the role played by the Ikpesi community who rose to the challenge by responding in a way that resulted in the rescue of the abducted students and their lecturers.
“We salute the community’s courage and patriotism and recommend their action to other besieged communities. Their reaction only proves that we are stronger together. Perhaps, but for their role and support, it would have been a take of woes,” said ASUU.
