September 13, (THEWILL) – The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), South-West Zone, on Tuesday, blocked the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Shagamu Interchange, in protest.
The protest is in reaction to the prolonged strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
NANS in a statement, issued at the protest ground, said the Federal Government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, was failing in its promises to revamp education.
Signed by the Coordinator and Public Relations Officer of the zone, Adegboye Emmanuel and Giwa Temitope, the statement read, “There is no point arguing about who is at fault or what is to be done, it is very clear.
“As it is today, no higher institution in Nigeria is world-class! Yet, our so-called public servants travel all over the world spending billions to send their kids abroad for studies.
“As major stakeholders in the educational sector, we are the ones who can save ourselves. We have monitored the yearnings of students from campus to campus through their social media platforms and also in their public writings.
“Students all over Nigeria stand with ASUU. Our lecturers suffer the same hardships and mal-developments we suffer. The staff houses are as bad as the students’ hostels.
“In South Africa, a professor’s laboratory is far more equipped than that of any university in Nigeria.
“History has been killed and undermined, so we the youths, do not know where we are coming from, not to talk of knowing where we are headed. But we will not lament anymore.
“The new leadership of NANS is here to work with students to achieve our set aims and objectives. We believe that the student movement has its place in history. It is a task that we vow to fulfill. We will never let Nigerian students down!”
THEWILL earlier reported that the Federal Government had asked the court to order ASUU to suspend its strike, while it engages the union to address the dispute.
ASUU had embarked on strike since February 14, 2022, to demand the funding for revitalisation of public universities as per the 2009 agreement, Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) payments, state universities proliferation and constitution of visitation panels and release of a white paper on the report of the visitation panels, the reconstitution of the government renegotiation team for renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, which was renegotiated in 2013/2014, due for renegotiation in 2018/2019 and the migration of ASUU members from IPPIS to its own UTAS, which is currently on test at NITDA.
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