By Joseph Erunke, Abuja

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities,ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, has said that Nigeria is too big for its citizens to languish in excruciating poverty.

This is as he blamed the federal government for failing to implement the resolutions of ASUU’s 1984 National Conference, noting that putting the resolution into effect would have saved the country from falling into its current crisis.

Speaking on Thursday at the 2024 Edition of ASUU State of the Nation Conference ,holding in Abuja, Prof. Osodeke said the country must be rescued from all its exploiters and oppressors “whether they are Nigerians or foreigners.”

“Nigeria is too rich for Nigerians to languish in excruciating poverty. Our common patrimony must be used for the common good. To this end, Nigerians must be rescued from all exploiters and oppressors whether they are Nigerians or foreigners. This is the agenda for this National Conference,”he said.
He explained that the 1984 ASUU National Conference identified incorporation of Nigeria into international capitalist system by the colonial imperialists as one of the root causes of its crisis.

Others, he noted, were Nigeria’s dependent and weak position within a declining and crises-ridden world capitalist system, the exploration and control of Nigeria’s resources by foreign firms and presence of a local petty and comprador exploiting class, whose members aid the foreign firms to steal Nigeria wealth and transfer same abroad.

“Government repression and oppression of Nigerian workers through decrees, policies and suffocating taxation without representation and stealing on a massive scale by foreign and national contractors, politicians, bureaucrats, middlemen, distributors and agents who do not contribute to production”,he said,are the reasons Nigeria is facing current crisis.

He explained that the conference with the theme: “Nigeria in a State of General Crisis: The Search for a New Path to Development’”,is being convened to address the present “hopeless state of our country as part of the ASUU’s patriotic contribution towards recovering our country back to the Nigerian people.”

He spoke further:”The Academic Staff Union of Universities was formed from the National Association of University Teachers in 1978.

” The objectives of the Union extend beyond the pursuit of the conditions of service and welfare of its members to include the “Protection and Advancement of the Socio-economic and Cultural Interest of the Nation”

“It is in pursuit of the above objectives that ASUU has over the years been organizing periodic National Conferences to generate ideas on how to provide a governance system that will cater for the interests of Nigerian people. The present foreign-controlled governance system that only serves the interest of few predators, primitive accumulators and foreign organizations needs to be changed.

” I believe that with the selected speakers and participants, we should be able to generate outcomes that will rescue Nigeria from the stronghold of foreign intruders and imperialist exploiters.

“The first of the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ State of the Nation Conferences held in April, 1984 at the University of Benin, Benin City with the theme: “The State of the Nigerian Economy”.

“The conference held at a time of grave economic crises. The crises were characterized by chronic shortages of essential goods and services, collapse of infrastructure and services, grand corruption, stealing, mass unemployment, high inflation rates, etc. “

According to him,”As the nation celebrates its 64″ anniversary and looking back, it is sad to note that the situation is worse off today when compared to 1984. If the Government then had implemented the resolution of the 1984 conference, the situation today will not have arisen. “

He expressed his hope that Nigeria government will implement the outcomes of the present National Conference to address the state of our country and allow Nigerians the space to breathe and enjoy the natural resources given to the nation by God. “