ASUU STRIKE: Travellers stranded as protesting students block Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

The students express their displeasure at the lingering strike which is now seven months old.

Travellers along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway were left stranded today after students from under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (South-West Zone) stormed the highway to express their displeasure at the ongoing ASUU strike.

It is nearly seven months since students of many Universities in Nigeria have been relegated to their homes due to the ongoing ASUU strike.

A strike, which started on February 14, 2022, has shown no signs of ending anytime soon and students have grown impatient about the situation.

According to the protesting students, the current government administration is failing in its promise to revamp education in Nigeria.

A statement released at the protest ground reads: “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 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.”

The students also disclosed that they are firmly behind ASUU and threatened to go mobile and shut down Presidential Villa if their demands are not met.

“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 fulfil. We will never let Nigerian students down.

“We call on ASUU leadership for a meeting 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.”