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The governor of
Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, on Friday called for negotiations with
lecturers of the Lagos State University (LASU) chapter of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the ongoing industrial action.

Explaining that
the state is willing to pay the workers their wages, Mr. Fashola, while
speaking to reporters at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed
Airport (MMA), Lagos disclosed that his government has other pressing
needs that require financial attention.

“We are concerned
about the strike and we expect that some understanding [will] prevail
in our negotiations with the striking workers for we cannot afford that
this strike continue in the interest of the students. But here we are
as we continue to negotiate and discuss with them to see the reason;
this is not a case of unwillingness to pay but our inability to do so
if we must attend to all other competing social responsibility of the
state,” he said.

The governor
argued that the increase of employees’ wages by the federal government
should not be mandated of the states, adding that the lecturers should
be considerate of the plight of their students.

“The point really is that this is not an agreement we were part of.
The federal government negotiates a salary structure with its own
staff, it cannot impose that on the states and that really is the
substance but we believe that dialogue will be the critical element and
lecturers should be showing restraint and concern for the students
whose academics are being affected. Here we are too, we are dealing
with the problems of infrastructure; even the school, we are dealing
with the issue of accreditation, new classrooms, new libraries and it
is from this same purse where salaries are meant to be paid and the
money to re-acredit and to build all these structure,” he said.