ASUU to FG, States: Make food, water, light available as you lockdown

The President, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, on Thursday advised the federal and state governments to back the lockdown across the country with provision of essential needs to the masses.
According to the union, unless everyday needs of the people are made available, the emerging lockdown of the country may not achieve its desired result of promoting self-isolation and social distancing.
The ASUU president, in a statement entitled: “COVID-19: Together We Shall Win,” a copy which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan, said there must be “reasonable” electricity supply, water and unbroken chain of food items.
Ogunyemi hinted that the union’s intervention in distributing sanitisers and other sensitisation materials to check the spread of COVID-19 had taken place at Universities of Ibadan and Jos, adding that such endeavour would hold in other chapters nationwide.
He warned that unless the needs of people were made available, the federal and state governments might face rebellion from the masses, which, according to him, might be counter-productive.
The ASUU president called on the federal and state governments to see how education and health would be given top priority after the pandemic, assuring that working together, the country would overcome.
He said: “Access to electricity and running water as well as unbroken chain of food supply and availability of other essential items should be key components of the policy called ‘lockdown’.
“It can be argued that no issue has ever brought humanity so close for many decades as the Coronavirus pandemic.
“The lesson in all of this is that more than ever before, the world has come to realise that issues of health and safety know no territorial boundaries.
“And political leaders everywhere had better worked with everyone to make our world safe for all.
“ASUU subscribes to this winning formula and path to collective health. In this our shared globe, no one is safe epidemiologically, socially or physically until everyone is safe.
“We can conquer the fear emerging from the manifestation of this global pandemic in our little corners.
“We can contribute to the global movement for prevention and control of its spread by applying the health guides and information from WHO and other professional institutions in our personal and family lives to stay safe and healthy.”