The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Kano Zone, yesterday made it known that before the re-opening of schools, government need to provide all the necessary COVID-19 safety protocols.
The acting Zonal Coordinator of the union in Kano, Professor Abdulkadir Mohammed, stated this to newsmen at the ASUU secretariat in Bayero University Kano.
Mohammed explained that “the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the country has laid bare the infrastructural deficit not only in our universities, but in other units of the education sector.
“This is as a result of the continuous refusal of the government to heed to ASUU calls for proper funding of our universities to make them globally competitive since 1992.
“Our previous agreements with the government in 1992, 2001, 2009 MoU, 2017 MoA, and NEEDs assessment reports have all made adequate provisions for the infrastructural needs of our universities to make them cope with the COVID-19 protocols.
“With lack of running water and electricity, overcrowded class, poorly spaced hostels rooms, libraries, laboratories and staff offices, none of the universities will satisfy the requirements of social distancing.
“Nigerian universities today are poorly equipped to cope with the COVID-19 protocols for school resumption as outlined by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).”
He further said, “Let me make it categorically that the union is not averse to opening public universities, but before doing that, the government must provide all the necessary conditions that will make it safe for our members and the students to avoid a spike in the case of COVID-19 pandemic.”
According to the union, the need for the provision of all the necessary COVID-19 safety protocols is to ensure the protection of lives and safety of the students and staff.
