ASUU Strike: King’s College Principal Decries Idle Youths

Uchechukwu Nnaike

The Principal, King’s College, Lagos, Mr Andrew Ali Agada, has expressed worry over the increasing number of idle youths in the country as a result of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

He regretted that two sets of students are waiting to be admitted into universities, and the recent secondary school leavers have joined the pool of idle youths.
He stated that the level of youth restiveness is partly a result of idleness and appealed to the federal government and ASUU to reach a compromise.
“Our children are idling at home which is not good for us. It’s not like when they were in secondary school that someone will be monitoring them, and their parents need to go to work, they can be lured into all sorts of vices.”

Agada said despite the tension, the school still maintains excellence, as one of its students, Lawal Olaoluwa Emmanuel, scored 355 to emerge among the first five in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), conducted by JAMB.

In keeping with his promise to reward the student with the best UTME result, the principal said Emmanuel would receive a cash award from him and other stakeholders during the school’s graduation ceremony on August 13.

In last year’s WASSCE, he said the school recorded 99 per cent for those that scored five credits and above, including English Language and mathematics.
“In English, we had 100 per cent; in mathematics, we had 98 per cent. In chemistry, physic, and biology, we had about 97, 96 per cent. We are not doing badly, but our goal is to be number one,” he said.