Nigerian students reject court judgement ordering ASUU to call off strike

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has kicked against the decision of the National Industrial Court ordering the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its strike action.

The Association, while maintaining that the lecturers cannot be forced back to work, said the court should have rather ordered the federal government to address the concerns of the lecturers.

In a statement signed by the association’s public relations officer, Giwa Temitope, on Wednesday, NANS stated that the judgement betrays equity.

“Our attention has been drawn to the news of a court judgment mandating the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its 7-month strike. As an association, we feel disturbed to read the news of the judgment because we believe that it betrays equity,” the statement read.

Read also: Court orders ASUU to call off 7-month-old strike

“Ordinarily, the federal government is not meant to have dragged ASUU to court. But, the fact that they had to drag ASUU to court is a signal that this government cannot handle crisis. And, we want to state categorically that the court cannot force members of ASUU back to lecture theatres.

“And, as it stands today, with that court judgment, we maintain that the court has not resolved the problem and we reject the judgment in strong terms. The court could have said that the Federal Government should go and pay rather than say that lecturers who are on strike should go back to classrooms. We were expecting the court to have understood that lecturers are on contract of personal service hence, they cannot be compelled to render a service they don’t want to render,” it added

According to NANS, the only remedy to this strike action is for the federal government to accede to the demands of ASUU which the government willingly entered into with them and properly fund education.