The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Monday, staged a protest in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and some other parts of the country to demand an end to the strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU).
The protest was also held in other states including Nasarawa, Kano, Plateau, Niger Taraba, Ekiti , Oyo State, among others.
Sunday Asefon, NANS national president who led the protest in Abuja, asked the federal government and ASUU to, as a matter of urgency, call off the strike while negotiation continues.
“We want to go back to classes, if not this will be more than #EndSars protest,” he said.
“It is disheartening to note that the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) has gone on strike more than four years cumulatively since 1999.
“The consequences of this development are grave on the part of the students who are the victim of these incessant industrial actions embarked upon by ASUU as a result of labour disagreement with the Federal Government. The resultant effect of these incessant strikes is inconsistency in scholarship, research, and learning output.
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“At the end of every strike action, ASUU members get their salary, government officials and politicians gets their pay, ministers in charge of the Ministry of Education and his counterpart in the Ministry of Labour gets their pay and allowances for unproductive meetings with ASUU, but the students get nothing than the inability to get mobilized for NYSC as a result of age limitation, limited job opportunities as a result of age limitation, untimely death of students traversing the poor Nigerian roads unnecessarily, all as a result of incessant ASUU strike”, he added
“It is more worrisome that most of the industrial actions could have been avoided if the government had been responsible enough to fulfil promises/agreements freely entered with ASUU over the years and fulfil their part of the bargain. Public tertiary institutions in Nigeria have taken a downward slope in recent years and there is an urgent need to fix the system. Many students no longer trust the education outcome of our tertiary institutions as a result of the incessant strike and infrastructural neglect from the government.
“These developments account for the high level of migration of Nigerian students abroad in search of stable and quality education. Many of our students are currently trapped in war-ravaged Ukraine as a result of the incessant strike in our universities and lack of adequate infrastructural development,” he further said.
The president vowed that the students will continue the protest until the strike is called off.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu scheduled an impromptu meeting with the leadership of the union who barricaded the entrance of the federal ministry of education.
Adamu, however, walked out on the meeting with the students when the leadership of the union questioned him on why the education sector is in rot, while the government is sending their children to study abroad.
Adamu said he was “Disappointed with their comments” and stepped out of the conference room.
ASUU embarked on a one month warning strike on the 14th of February 2022, over the government’s failure to implement the Memorandum of Action it signed with the union.
Some of ASUU’s demands include: adequate funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, Universities Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS), promotion arrears, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU/FG agreement and the inconsistencies in Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System Payment (IPPIS).
The federal government has scheduled another meeting with ASUU on Tuesday, 1st March.
