NANS had threatened a protest that could make #EndSARS look like a child’s play if federal government and ASUU fail to reach an agreement
The strike action that has crippled Nigerian universities will now be felt by travellers. Tertiary institution students in Ondo State under the auspices of the National Association of University Students (NAUS) on Wednesday blocked the busy Ibadan-Akure-Abuja highway in protest over the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
According to the Nation, the blockade caused heavy vehicular traffic along the highway as many heavy-duty trucks and passengers bus going to and fro Abuja, Lagos or Benin were stranded.
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Motorists travelling to nearby communities along the highway resorted to taking alternative untarred routes.
Former Student Union President of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Esedere Abraham, said the protest would continue until ASUU calls off the strike action.
Esedere stated that students should not be made to suffer for any problem between ASUU and the Federal Government.
Vice-Chairman of NAUS, Ondo State chapter, Shittu Folarin, said the students want to ensure this would be the last action by ASUU.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu had walked out on a delegation of NAN seeking an end to the strike embarked upon by ASUU.
The students, under the umbrella, had barricaded the headquarters of the Ministry of Education to demand the intervention of the federal government in resolving the strike.
The meeting at the instance of the Minister was an impromptu arrangement to placate the protesting students.
The brief meeting with NAN had the Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed.
But Adamu who was visibly angry with the emotive presentation of the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Sunday Asefon, walked out of the meeting.
Asefon asked the minister to close down his office since he could not resolve the crisis between ASUU while lamenting the failure of the government to resolve the ASUU strike after several years.
He lamented that “ASUU strike is killing education more and more. This strike has been affecting our lives since 1999 and Nigerian students want to be part of the discussion between the federal government and ASUU dialogues to find a lasting solution to the matter.
“We want the federal government and ASUU to as a matter of urgency call off this strike while negotiation continues. We want to go back to classes, if not this will be more than #EndSars protest,” he said.
Trouble, however, exploded when in the course of the meeting, the students leadership questioned the minister for abandoning the education sector in a mess while sending their children to study abroad.