National Telescope national telescope newspaper
By Daniel Ayantoye
ASUU donates 1000 Sanitisers to Ogun Govt.
As parts of its contribution to the reduce the spread of Coronavirus in the country, the Lagos Zone of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has donate 1, 000 pieces of 125ml bottled hand sanitisers to the state government.
Receiving the donation onbehalf of the State, the Deputy Governor, Noimot Salako-Oyedele at her office in Oke-Imosan, Abeokuta appreciated the Union for the donation.
Earlier in his address, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Abiodun Ogunyemi, expressed confidence on the capacity of Nigeria to produce vaccine for Covid-19.
He said higher investment in education at national and sub-national levels would provide quality medical and behavioural scientists to produce vaccine for treatment of the infection. Adding that, investment in education would yield immeasurable dividends.
While reinstating the Union’s commitment towards the fight against Coronavirus, the ASUU President said that last month, ASUU directed all its 70 branches and 13 zones to play active role in the fight against the spread of the dreaded coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria.
He said: “Between then and now, our branches/zones have been involved in the production, presentation and distribution of information, education and communication (IEC) materials, hand sanitizers, facilities for hand washing, among others in not less than 20 states of the federation.
He said “Besides, medical and paramedical members of ASUU are equally involved in providing frontline services at the isolation centres within and outside teaching hospitals nationwide.
“The COVID-19 pandemic poses a real threat to our collective survival. It is a threat which calls to test our sense of common humanity.
“ASUU fully subscribes to prevention as a major plank of the fight against COVID-19 in Ogun State and Nigeria. As the saying goes, prevention is better and cheaper than cure. So, through it, we can fight together and push back the dreaded virus from our land.”
He noted that the donation of some items to the Ogun State government was a practical demonstration of that belief.
“If sufficiently empowered, Nigerian biomedical scientists, behavioural scientists and others Nigerian scholars, like their peers elsewhere, can conduct cutting edge research into the human and biological dimensions of COVID-19. Who says the vaccine to coronavirus cannot come out of Nigeria.
“We therefore hope Nigerian governments, at state and federal levels, will continue to encourage and support university scholars to all institutional and professional-related encumbrances that currently make them less productive.”
“For instance, conscious and determined investment in university education at national and sub-national levels would give our country quality medical scientists, behavioural scientists, creative scholars and other creams of informed citizens who can respond intelligently to challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To achieve better results, we believe Nigerian governments at the federal and state levels need to work with public intellectuals and patriotic trade unions like ASUU” he added.
