Heavy traffic on Tuesday locked down the Lagos-Ibadan expressway as students took over the ever-busy expressway to protest over the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that ASUU has been on a protracted strike since February 14th 2022 and several meetings between the union and representatives of the federal government ended in deadlocks.
Heavy gridlock hit the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at the Shagamu Interchange section today as the students under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) protested over the prolonged ASUU strike.
TNG reports that the protesting students brandished sticks and placards bearing different inscriptions, and prevented motorists from plying the busy road, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded as the protesters paralysed traffic flow.
After some minutes of blockage, a team of armed policemen stormed the area and prevailed on the students to open up the road for motorists to move. At exactly 1:00 pm, the protesters opened up the road and moved to another location to continue their agitation.
One of the protesters, who identified himself as Comrade Olusegun, the Global Deputy Senate President of NANS, told our correspondents that Nigerian students were tired of idling at home at the detriment of their academic pursuits.
He prompted the Federal Government to quickly resolve the issue with their lecturers and open their universities for academic activities. Olusegun asserted that the strike has made most undergraduates go into the taxi business to make ends meet while their female colleagues have taken to prostitution.
He said, “We are here to let the federal government know we are tired of their deliberate attempts to tamper with our future. Most of our male students are now cab drivers. Most female students are now into prostitution. We are tired and it’s a deliberate attempt of the Federal Government. Most of our leaders never schooled in Nigeria, and those who did, had free education and food but it’s unfortunate that they are now depriving us of education.
“I see no reason why the federal government should appoint Minister of Education who never believed in education and Minister of Labour who doesn’t possess the requisite criteria. This is the reason why we are here to let the world know that we can’t continue to tolerate this strike,” he added.
ASUU Strike: NANS calls for speedy resolution
NANS had earlier called for the immediate resolution to the ongoing ASUU strike. The newly elected President of NANS, Umar Faruq-Lawal, made the call in Abuja while addressing journalists on the development of the strike.
Faruq-Lawal called on ASUU to return to the negotiation table and re-open public universities across the country. He announced the association would protest against the eight-month-old strike, saying the labour crisis had brought untold hardship on the students, parents and the economy of Nigerians.
The president also said that it introduced the ‘Academic Reforms struggle’ in honour of one of NANS’ late officials to generate discourse on educational development in the country.
“The only thing I will say is that ASUU and the Federal Government should return to the negotiation table and resolve all the issues amicably and reopen our campuses.
“It’s not the students that pay the salaries of the lecturers, it’s the Federal Government so we don’t have the capacity to advise the government nor our lecturers, we can only insist that both of them return to the negotiation table,” he said.