Students, under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigerian Students, on Tuesday, stopped the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Shagamu Interchange, in protest.
The demonstration is in reaction to the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
According to reports, ASUU started its strike on February 14, 2022, and many students’ hopes for a resumed class are still dashed because the union and the Federal Government are still at odds.
The students claimed that the Federal Government, headed by the President, President Muhammadu Buhari, was breaking its promises to reform education in a statement given to the media on the protest grounds and signed by the Coordinator, South-West Zone, and National Public Relations Officer of NANS, Adegboye Emmanuel and Giwa Temitope, respectively.
“There is no point arguing about who is at fault or what is to be done, it is very clear that the rulers underfund education and the Buhari government is failing in its promises to revamp education.
“As it is today, no higher institution in Nigeria is world-class! Yet, our so-called public servants travell all over the world spending billions to send their kids abroad for studies.
Parts of the statemet read, “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!”
Standing with ASUU, they stated their demands as follows:
“We call on ASUU leadership for a meeting as as soon as possible to discuss solidarity actions and plan for the next phase of the struggles.
“We pass a vote of no confidence on both Ministers of Labour and Education; We call for the proper funding of the educational sector as against what has been attainable in the past seven years; We Call on the Buhari government to pay all outstanding arrears and salaries of the lecturers. The policy of “No Work No Pay” is a fascist one, it’s therefore, condemnable and nonacceptable to all the millions of students in Nigeria.”
If their demands are not satisfied, the students pledged to organize a shutdown of the Presidential Villa.
See images from the protest below:
