NANS gives 14-day ultimatum, threatens mass protest
Students have decried the inability of the Federal Government to intervene in the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities.
JAC is made up of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, National Association of Academic Technologists and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities.
A fresh graduate of the University of Jos, Aminu Nasir, told our correspondent that the ongoing NASU strike had caused more harm than good.
Nasir said that the strike had made it impossible for him to get the testimonial required by the National Youth Service Corps for newly mobilised graduates reporting at the various orientation camps.
According to him, some other students had been rendered idle at home due to the total shut down of some universities as a result of the NASU strike, adding that the students now indulged in all sorts of social vices at home.
“Some other schools that are about writing examinations are now under threat of the non-teaching staff of such institutions. That is why we are pleading with the government and the unions to shift ground,” he said.
A 100 level student of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Ms. Jemimah Ogodo, told our correspondent that the strike action had constituted a serious setback to both the returning and new students as they had yet to commence the registration.
Ogodo said, according to the academic Calendar, the school’s first semester examination had been scheduled to commence in March, but lectures had yet to commence.
She said, “This SSANU strike is really affecting us. We have been queuing at the faculty offices in our numbers, but nobody is attending to us. We know that they are fighting for their right, but they should realise that we have a right to be educated. We have paid our school fees, but all the offices that are supposed to register us are under lock and key.
“If they delay in calling off the strike, it will affect our performance during the first semester examination because the time we should spend on studying and revision for our examination, we would spend for registration. I want to sincerely use this medium to appeal to the management of the school to excuse the Faculty Officers or the Academic Secretaries to attend to students on registration matters while the strike lasts.”
A 300 level Communication Arts student of the University Of Ibadan, who just concluded her 2016|2017 semester examinations and simply gave his name as Yeni, told our correspondent about the harsh conditions they were subjected to in the course of writing their examinations.
“We didn’t have enough water to use and our academic and hostel environment smelt so bad, even the university’s library and health centre were not opened due to the strike, though adequate security was put in place to ensure that the examinations went well,” he said.
The President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Comrade Haruna Kadiri, said it had already given the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum to step into the crisis and resolve all outstanding issues with the unions or risk a mass protest by the students.
Kadiri said, “We are urging the Federal Government, as a matter of urgency, within 14 days to do the needful for JAC (SSASNU, NASU and NAAT) to suspend the industrial action. Failure to comply with our demands will lead to mass mobilisation of Nigerian students and union leaders to occupy the streets of FCT.
“We are also urging JAC to negotiate so as to see a final solution to the impasse, as when two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. “We also want to appeal to the leadership of JAC to look into institutions that have peculiar cases, which are about to start exams and backwardness in academic calendar and temper justice with mercy.
Kadiri also noted that the association frowned upon the alleged insincerity of government in handing the labour crisis in Nigerian universities, a development which had led to the loss of students’ lives and property.
He further called on Nigerian students to be patient and also show solidarity in the struggle to call off the strike.
The unions embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike on December 10, 2017 over the non-implementation of an agreement reached with the Federal Government in 2009 and 2017.
