Apparently concerned by the recent unrest in some tertiary institutions in the country, the Office of the Special Assistant to President on Youths and Students’ Affairs (OSAPYS), has reached out to major stakeholders towards resolving the problem, Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students’ Affairs, Nasir Sa’idu Adhama has disclosed.
According to him, his office has been in constant consultations with relevant stakeholders, including the institutions’ managements, students’ union leaders, the National Universities Commission, the Federal Ministry of Education, and the National Board for Technical Education towards addressing the incidence of unstable power supply which has reduced water supply and caused a hike in transportation fares at these troubled institutions.
Adhama said: “In the Interim, a high level fact finding team is being constituted to work with relevant agencies and affected institutions to ascertain the immediate causes of the crises and proffer solutions for academic activities to be restored at these affected campuses: UniPort, UniLag, Benue State University, Adekunle Ajasin University, among others.”
Adhama who expressed condolence and sympathy on the loss of lives in some of the protests, however appealed to Nigerian students to maintain law and order in the pursuit of their legitimate rights.
He said: “The Federal Government remains committed to addressing the lingering power and energy challenges and needs the support and understanding of all Nigerians to achieve desired results”.
While condemning destructions of public properties during some of the protests, he called on students “to engage management in constant consultations as the best negotiating tool in addressing all current contentions arising from change in institution’s policies.”
“I wish to draw our student leaders’ and students attention to the three Cs’ of Consultation, Consolidation and Confrontation which they are familiar with. Reports so far gathered confirm poor consultation between students’ leaders and institution’s management before adopting confrontation as a solution to the plights of students at our campuses”, a statement signed by Okpanachi Jacob, Technical Assistant (Students) to Adhama quoted him to have said.
