The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has appealed to university lecturers and media practitioners to suspend their planned strike actions and return to the negotiation table with the federal government to find amicable solutions to their grievances.
The appeal was contained in a communiqué issued after the Forum’s meeting on Wednesday, where members also deliberated on pressing national issues.
Founded by the late Chief Edwin Clark, late Dan Suleiman, late Chukwuemeka Ezeife, late Ayo Adebanjo, and other prominent leaders, the SMBLF also urged the Federal Government to deploy maximum resources to tackle the country’s worsening security challenges.The communiqué was signed by Oba Oladipo Olaitan, Leader of Afenifere; Dr. Pogu Bitrus, President-General of the Middle Belt Forum; and Ambassador Godknows Boladei Igali, National Chairman of PANDEF.
Addressing the planned strike by university lecturers, the Forum urged the government to continue negotiations with ASUU to avert any industrial action.
Reading the communiqué, Oba Olaitan said: “The Forum notes the ongoing demands by various unions in the academic community toward ensuring commitments by the Federal Government to its members, especially ASUU. We call on the Federal Government to continue negotiating with ASUU to forestall any strike.”
The Forum also appealed to the Nigerian Medical Association to consider the plight of ordinary Nigerians who will be most affected by any disruption in healthcare services.
“We are also calling on the Federal Government to complete negotiations with resident doctors and end the ongoing strike. Ordinary Nigerians who cannot afford private medical care are the ones suffering. We therefore call on the Resident Doctors to reach an agreement with the government and end strikes in the medical sector,” it stated.
On recent security incidents, including the killing of Brigadier General Musa Uba and the abduction of students in Kebbi State, the Forum urged the Federal Government to seek support from global partners to tackle the challenges.
Olaitan added, “We urge the Federal Government to deploy maximum resources to rescue the abducted schoolgirls and remain open to partnership with global allies, including the Americans, acting with sincerity. The government must also urgently present a public programme for the rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced families in the Middle Belt.”
The Forum further demanded decisive action against extremist violence and condoled the families of Gen. Uba, his colleagues, and the Nigerian Army.
Other resolutions reached at the meeting included a call for the continued protection and sustenance of democracy in Nigeria.
“We therefore call on the leadership of the ruling political party to put a check on the rising tendencies of decamping and tilting political alliances without due consideration of ideology and political persuasion,” the group stated
SMBLF also condemned “in the strongest terms the emerging tendency among the political class to railroad the country towards single-party control of the key democratic structures at the federal and subnational levels.”
The group also expressed “serious concern over the state of factionalization and internal strife which seems to be occurring amongst some of the main opposition political parties.
“In particular, the very barbaric show-of-shame which occurred at the National Secretariat of the main opposition party, People Democratic Party, on Tuesday, 18th November, 2025, led separately by a serving Minister in the cabinet of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, on the one hand and serving Governors on the other.
“The meeting condemns in its entirety the deployment and brazen use of security and law enforcement officers, especially men of the Nigeria Police Force, for partisan political activities and disruptions to the nation’s nascent democratic evolution”.
SMBLF also charged the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission to take timely actions to redirect the emerging political trends ahead of the 2027 general elections.
(The Nation)
