EXCLUSIVE: We’ll Occupy Abuja Streets if ASUU Strike Continues, Says NANS President
- Nigerian students say they will occupy the streets of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja due to the ongoing ASUU strike
- The country's lecturers recently extended their industrial action across the nation, leaving students already at home frustrated
- To drive home their frustration, the students have now agreed to take over the streets of the Nigerian capital
FCT, Abuja - Following the extension of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has threatened to return to the streets of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and turn them into university campuses.
Recall that ASUU had since extended its ongoing strike for another eight weeks after all entreaties to resolve its disagreement with the Nigerian government failed.
Source: Facebook
This means that the students will have to wait for another two months to know their fate.
Nigerian students have spent over a month at home since the commencement of the strike, and a protest organised by the national body of NANS was put off after the government appealed to the students, promising to open a fresh negotiation with the ASUU leadership.
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In an exclusive chat with Legit.ng, NANS president, Comrade Sunday Asefon vowed that Nigerian students will return to the streets again if every effort to resolve the ongoing crisis in the education sector fails.
Asefon who disclosed the outcome of their Monday, March 14 meeting to Legit.ng said in the zoom meeting, most of their students have suggested that since the federal government and ASUU have created a new university on the street of Abuja, the students will now return back to the street once their final intervention of involving other stakeholders including former NANS leadership fails.
His words:
“This means the Nigerian students will now return to the streets, particularly, we should all mobilize to Abuja. They should all come with their cooking materials, mattresses, food, and other things and permanently lock down Abuja streets.
“We will now resume school in Abuja since our schools are under lock and key. We can’t fold our arms for another two months.
“If you add the two months with the one month we have spent so far, it will be over a semester. We cannot continue this way. Like I have always said, after the whole strike, ASUU will still be paid. Salary for ASUU last month was paid. Who will pay the Nigerian students for the loss?”
Asefon further revealed that maybe, students should start contributing money and support the government if they don’t have money to meet lecturers’ demands.
How ASUU extended its industrial action amid students' outrage
ASUU had on Monday, March 14, extended its ongoing strike action by two months.
Prof. Abdulkadir Muhammad Danbazau, an ASUU official, who confirmed the report, said the union's latest decision was influenced by the need to allow it and the federal government to reach a solid agreement in order to avoid further strikes in the future.
Professor Danbazau added that the two months were enough for the government to do the needful.
ASUU tackles NITDA over claims on its payment system
Meanwhile, ASUU has contradicted claims by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) that its payment system failed an integrity test.
The ASUU payment platform known as the University Transparency and Accountability Solution has been a subject of scrutiny in the past few weeks following a statement by the director-general of NITDA doubting its potency.
Reacting to NITDA's position, the leadership of ASUU on Sunday, March 13 issued a press release stating that the allegations of NITDA were false.
Source: Legit.ng
