Former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran has said for the incessant strikes in the nation's universities to end, both parties involved in trade dispute must see themselves as Nigerians.
Adeniran, also a former member of the Board of Trustees of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, while observing that education must be given the right attention, insisted that both government and lecturers must see themselves as Nigerians and patriots first during negotiations.
The former Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, spoke in Abuja, on the sideline of public presentation of two books, titled: "Some thoughts on Education in Nigeria" and "Policy Making and International Security" written by him.
According to him,there was no problem that cannot be solved if the parties involved in the negotiation process were sincere, transparent and committed.
He said: "The ASUU strike occupies a whole chapter in my book which goes into the genesis and what it will take to resolve the incessant and I believe (it is resolvable. There is no problem that cannot be solved, if we are sincere, transparent and committed.
"I believe very much that once we regard education, give it as much attention as possible, support it adequately, and give education the right orientation in this country, we will be able to solve so many problems, even the security problems
"I believe that we are going to solve this question of kidnapping, and banditry and some other things when we generally resolved and resort to build a genuine and true nation, whereby we cater for the needs of everybody.
"How do we really solve these strikes? I believe that so many agreements have been reached with the government on quite a number of issues. There is need to sit down and revisit them. When the two parties are transparent and they are sincere, they will be able to solve the problems. There are certain agreements that have been reached even as of today, which has become difficult to implement. Let all these issues be discussed. One thing is we usually operate from adversarial position and comments from time to time.
"During negotiations, parties looks at one another, not as the same citizens and nations committed to the same goals but as opponents and enemies which is wrong. We should all put the interests of the country first".
Speaking on the Nigerien crisis and political climate across Africa, Adeniran warned the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against making empty threats.
He was reacting to the spate of coup d'etat spreading across the continent and ECOWAS threat to use military intervention in restoring democracy in Niger.
Noting that the ECOWAS leaders must be proactive by thinking ahead, he also stressed the need for the regional leaders to also be realistic.
The diplomat said: "Well, my advice to ECOWAS is that before situations arise, they should be proactive by thinking ahead and when they are thinking ahead, they should also be realistic. It doesn't pay to make threats that are not credible. If you cannot fulfill, you do not make threats.
"One other thing which is important here is that ECOWAS should pay a lot of attention to good governance. They are shy. They are not ready to tell the various member countries the truth about what is going on.
"When there are certain shortcomings, where we do not have enough commitment to the welfare of the people, they should be bold and courageous enough to let others know because it is of collective interest to have stability, security and above all, to have development that will improve quality of life of citizens.
"Then, at the the national level, my advice would be each of them should go back to the drawing board and have have dialogue with their various constituents then come up with a constitution that will be able to drive development and improve the quality of life of citizens which will also enable them too to govern effectively. By this, they won't turn themselves to little emperors. What this means is that there is need for our leaders to revisit their approaches to governance.
Adeniran said he wrote the books as part of his contribution to the development of Nigeria.
On his part, a former military governor of Bauchi and Kano states Maj-Gen Chris Garuba (rtd), who wrote the foreword of one of the books 'Policy Making and International Security', noted that the Security Council is arguably the most important of the six organs of the United Nations established under the UN Charter.
According to him, that is because international peace and security are the raison d'etre of the UN, considering that the organization itself was birthed in October 1945 after World War II to promote international peace and security.
"In the execution of its mandate of maintaining international peace and security, UN spends huge sums of money annually. In the current period of July 2022, to June 2023, an expenditure budget of a whopping $6.45bn was devoted to the 12 active Peacekeeping Missions around the globe.
"The UN is eminently aware that some situations that initially appear like internal security matters international soon security balloon into challenges. Enlightened nations also are aware that national (local/internal) security policies of countries would ultimately have implications on international security. That is why nations keep an eye on what others are doing with their internal security," Garuba said.
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