The Senior Pastor of Christ Livingspring Apostolic Ministry, CLAM, Mr. Wole Oladiyun, has appealed to Nigerians to contribute financially to end the eight months strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
The senior pastor made the call on Friday in Lagos at a press conference to unveil the financial intervention programme by CLAM to make lecturers and students return to school.
The programme is called “Back to School Intervention Fund, BTSIF.”
FrontPage reporter at the event quoted the pastor as explaining that the Back to School Intervention Fund, BTSIF, was a non-political and non-partisan platform designed to mobilise funds to support the federal government and ASUU in resolving the problem bedeviling the education sector.
He stressed that the programme was particularly to end the eight months old strike of ASUU.
Said he: “We decided to pioneer the setting up of the intervention fund as a way of completing the government’s efforts; the funds will not be warehoused in our church, I will also not be signatory. The funds will be managed by these reputable auditing firms, Pricewaterhouse, KGPM and Akintola Walliams.
“We will have dedicated account to be agreed upon by the trustees of the fund managers who will be reputable individuals and firms in the country. We are not apportioning blame to any of the parties involved in the dispute or to redicule the federal government. We just want to work with well-meaning individuals and organisations to ensure that students return to the classrooms as soon as possible. We are playing our part as responsible citizens of this country.”
He warned that the blame game should stop.
“It’s time for action and sincere intervention by all those who truly love Nigeria.
“What we are doing is not our personal project, we are just spearheading it. We will be working with other reputable people-focused organisations to make it happen. This is who we are at our church; we are human development institutions committed to the welfare and all around development of the people.
“We are going to run a transparent process and ensure that there is accountability. That is why we are not doing it alone; we are inviting churches, mosques, financial institutions, oil and gas industry operators, manufacturing companies and all members of the organised private sector to join us on the rescue mission.
“What we are doing is an emergency that requires timely and sustainable remedial strategies; we are aware that corporate bodies are mandated by law to commit a certain percentage of their profit tax to education development.
“The money we realised will further deepen the reservoir of funds available for education development by involving individuals, corporate entities and Nigerians in the diaspora. Aside from security vote, education vote should be the next, because our best brains have been drained by foreign countries.”
