EKITI STUDENTS GO SPIRITUAL ON ASUU STRIKE

Students of Ekiti State origin in tertiary institutions have
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 prayers for divine intervention,
adding 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, advised 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 shaken 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