*vows to block all federal roads in Nigeria from Tuesday
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
National Association of Nigerian Students, (NANS) on Monday asked the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities to stop display of ” “madness” over the on going strike in the Nigeria Universities.
During the protest to the NUJ Press center, the NANS members carried placards with inscriptions such as “FG and ASUU, Stop the madness”. “Stop the strike and revitalize our education”, “After the end of strike, only students lose”. ” FG should learn to respect agreement”, ” Age is irriversible, house rents are not refundable stop distrupting our life plans”.
Addressing journalists in Ibadan during a protest by NANS members at the Oyo state NUJ Press center in Ibadan, the South West Coordinator of B zone of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Fiyinfoluwa Steven Tegbe, the association vowed to go the way of violence.
” We are holding our peaceful demonstrating here today because of the lingering crisis between the ASUU and federal government which has been a reoccurring event over the years. Unfortunately, we students are always at the receiving end. If the federal government and ASUU refused to resolve today, we won’t hesitate to go by the way of violence”, he said
The NANS Southwest coordinator added, ” it is going to be a violence for violence and war for war. They cannot continue to be wasting our time. When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers If per adventure ASUU and federal government refused to make up today, we will block all the federal roads tomorrow.”
While calling on the federal government to learn how to respect agreement, NANS lamented, ” we have seen in many occasions when the federal government and ASUU reached agreement but the federal government failed to fulfil the pledge”.
” We are also calling on ASUU to have a decisive ways of spending their resources, even when their demands are met. This is because we want to see the projects they are doing with the subvention they are receiving from the federal government.”
The Southwest NANS Coordinator stressed, ” our people are complaining that they don’t use to see what they are doing with the money release to them. Meanwhile, it is the same members of ASUU that rig elections for politicians. Though we don’t have any issue with them because they are our fathers and teachers but we need to say the truth. ”
He declared further , again, ASUU members should have a decisive ways to deal with issues rather than going on strike all the time because they are wasting our time. We are appealing to the federal government and ASUU to resolve the issue and allow us to go back to our various classes.
Tegbe pointed out NANS members are ready to resist all the attempt to send them back to the street, saying, ” the protest is holding across the country today. If the Federal government refused to settle today, we shall continue to return to street for protest until our demands are met”.
According to him, “the instruction from the national office of NANS is that all the federal roads should be blocked but as a coordinator, i have to consider many factors including security implications before given such instruction to block all the roads.”
