The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), on Monday, staged a nationwide protest calling the on Federal government to immediately negotiate with the Academic Staff Union of Union Staff (ASUU) and bring the on-going strike to an end.
The protesters, led by the National President of NANS Comrade Sunday Asefon, barricaded the entrance to the Federal Ministry of Education, preventing both workers and visitors from going in and coming out of the offices housed at the Ministry of Education building.
The students carried placards with various inscriptions, urging the Federal government to heed the cries of the students and reach an agreement with ASUU.
ASUU started a one-month warning strike on February 14 over government’s alleged unfaithfulness in the implementation of 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 students reportedly vowed to continue the protest until the strike is called off, regardless that the leadership of ASUU and representatives of the Federal government might meet on Tuesday over the impasse.
NANS President, Comrade Sunday Asefon, in his speech during the protest, said the leaders in the country had enjoyed free quality education in the past but want to punish the current generation with disruption in the sector.
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.
“At the end of every strike action, ASUU members get their salary, government officials and politicians get their pay, ministers in charge of the Ministry of Education and his counterpart in the Ministry of Labour get 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, untimely death of students traversing the poor Nigerian roads unnecessarily, all as a result of incessant ASUU strike.
“It is more worrisome that most of the industrial actions could have been avoided if the government has been responsible enough to fulfill promises/agreements freely entered with ASUU over the years and fulfill their part of the bargain. The public tertiary institution in Nigeria has taken a downward slope in recent years and there is an urgent need to fix the system.
Several students no longer trust the education outcome of our tertiary institutions as a result of the incessant strike and infrastructural neglect by 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 said the students are, therefore, compelled to take the following positions:
“That the Federal government must as a matter of urgency honour every agreement freely entered with ASUU and renegotiate areas that need renegotiation in good faith with ASUU while we call on ASUU to be open-minded, progressive, and be realistic in their terms.
“Federal government must do all it takes to convince ASUU to suspend its strike and return to the classroom immediately to ensure continuity in our academic calendar.
They called on Federal government to consider immediate and urgent investment in revitalizing public tertiary institutions in Nigeria to accommodate our growing population and the emerging needs of this century.
“We demand that Nigerian students who are the victim of the incessant ASUU strike must be represented in all negotiations between the Federal Government and ASUU.
“We also demand that government representatives and ASUU representatives at the negotiations must show proof that their children attended or attending a public university in Nigeria.
“We, therefore, plead with ASUU to call off the strike while they devise new means of holding the government accountable without necessarily going on strike,” he concluded.