The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has threatened to shut down the country including the Presidential Villa over the failure of the federal government to reach a truce with the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
The student body insisted it will not rescind its protests until the federal government meets the demands of the members of the academic union.
NANS issued this warning in a statement issued on Thursday and signed by its Chairman, NANS National Task Force on ASUU Ojo Raymond Olumide.
The statement said, “The national leadership of NANS, since the commencement of this struggle has declared that it is a “no retreat, no surrender” agitation. And, the implication of that is that, what is being witnessed today is more like a preamble to the real struggle of Nigerian students to come, whereby economic activities in the country would be grounded by the mass of Nigerian students.
“And, in living true to the threat of sustaining the struggle that we have begun is why we are here today in protest against the gross failure of the Buhari-led administration to invest in the educational sector.
“It cannot be overemphasised that Nigerian students have been rubbed of education, not even ‘quality’. We can only talk about quality when there is the presence of education. But, in this case, there is no education at all for the Nigerian students.
“And, this governmental failure has led to the invention of a phrase which is gaining momentum amongst Nigerian people, both old and young, that “education is a scam”. Meanwhile, education is not a scam. But, unfortunately, this phrase has really endangered the values that clothe the institution of education in Nigeria.
“This government is working effortlessly to weaponize ignorance in the country while embarking on an expansion of their attempt to commercialise the educational sector and take it out of the reach of the poor. Alas!
“They will be the one to approach Nigerian youths with a slogan that has already become a cliche in the political terrain that “youths are the future of the country.” Regrettably, the youths are not being empowered with education which would fortify them to be the future that they ought to be.
“As you could see, we have the National PRO of NANS, Giwa Yisa Temitope, Deputy Senate President, Ekundina Elvis, Vice-President (External Affairs), Akinteye Babatunde, NANS/JCC Chairmen from Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Lagos and Ondo at the forefront of the struggle.
See the demands of NANS below:
Tomorrow, we shall be at the Benin-Ore expressway in continuation of the protest.
We already have a line up event and we shall sustain it until the Federal Government heed to our demands.
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 7years.
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 non acceptable to all the millions of students in Nigeria!
We will, by this statement, not beg again. We will be mobilizing all students to Shut Down the country (without excluding the Presidential villa)
No Education! No Movement!
