ASUU strike: Ekiti students seek divine intervention

Students of Ekiti State origin in tertiary
institutions embarked on marathon prayers to seek divine
intervention in the five- month old strike by the members
of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities,
ASUU.

The students, who were drawn from the various
institutions of higher learning converged at Lady Jibowu
Hall, Ekiti Government House where they held the prayer
session

The session had in attendance, the state’s Deputy
Governor, Professor Modupe Adelabu and some clerics.

Adelabu in her remarks cautioned the students against
taking to the streets and engaging in illegal acts that
could lead to violence and disruption of peace in the
state.

She noted that they did the right thing by taking their
petition to God. She said it was unfortunate that both
parties to the dispute – ASUU and the Federal
Government – had remained adamant despite
interventions from well-meaning Nigerians.

The number two citizen of the state urged the students
not to relent in their regular prayer for divine intervention,
saying that the death of Prof Festus Iyayi, a frontline
ASUU member in an auto-crash along the Abuja-Lokoja
Road introduced another twist to the lingering dispute.

Mrs Adelabu, who expressed the hope that the prayers of
the students would yield the desired result in a matter of
days, counseled the undergraduates against engaging in
activities that could jeopardize their future.

Mrs Adelabu regretted that the situation which keeps
them at home in the past few months was not their own
making and that their teachers did not deliberately embark
on the strike to put the students’ future at stake.

According to her, the lecturers were only pressing for their
rights and other logistics that will improve the facilities in
the nation’s citadel of leaning and to make them world
standard.

Advising the students to engage themselves in profitable
ventures, she also urged them not to completely abandon
their studies but constantly review their lecture notes in
preparation for the re-opening of the varsities.

Pastor John Aladete in his sermon at the prayer session
urged the students not to be daunted by their present
predicament as a result of the protracted ASUU strike.
The cleric charged them to be hopeful with an assurance
that God will be with them irrespective of the present
development. He said God has designed their generation
to bring the desired change needed by the country.

The students were later led into series of prayer sessions
by some clerics including the Government House
Chaplain, Rev. Fr. Anthony Famuagun, Pastor Tunde
Akinola of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG),
the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Youths,
Pastor Mike Awopetu and Special Assistant to the
Governor on Student Affairs, Mr
Adeoye Aribasoye.