NANS Issues One Week Ultimatum To FG, ASUU To End Strike

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) to allow students to resume their classes.

The student association threatened to embark on nationwide protest should the government fail to end the ongoing strike by doing the needful.

NANS President, Sunday Asefon who spoke on Monday in Sokoto State said it won’t be possible that Nigerian students are at home while the office of the Minister of Education and Minister of Labour is open.

Naija News understands that NANS executives are currently in Sokoto for the association’s constitutional review conference, where it reviewed its forty years Constitution at the Sokoto State University.

Having signed the reviewed Constitution of the association at the Sokoto State Government House, NANS President said: “The Nigerian students have concluded and given the mandate that if the Federal Government and ASUU do not resolve this between today and Friday, Nigerian students should mobilise and give the language the government understands.

“A day of national mass action has been fixed – February 28, which is next week Monday. Every Nigerian student that the ASUU strike has sent home should block all the Federal roads and the office of the Minister of Education and the office of the Minister of Labour should also be blocked. If Nigerian students are at home, office of the Minister of Education and Minister of Labour cannot be opened.”

Asefon lampooned the government, said it was playing hide and seek with ASUU since 1999 when they signed the agreement with the academic union.

“NANS is not going to stand by and watch the government destroy tertiary education in the country,” Adedayo is quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu had said the decision by ASUU to embark on strike came to him as a surprise.

This is as he claimed the union went on strike while negotiations were still ongoing and the government was already attending to their matters.

Naija News reports that the Minister stated this during a chat with State House correspondents last week Wednesday after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.

Adamu said the government had already set up a committee to review the demands and position of ASUU when suddenly the union announced strike action.

“ASUU, unfortunately, has gone on strike and I am looking for them because all the issues are being addressed.

“The last thing that happened was that our committee looked at their demands, but there are renegotiations going on. They submitted a draft agreement which the ministry is looking at,” Adamu said.