The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, said yesterday that its patience following the strike in the nation’s public universities had been long overdue.
The body made it known that its deadline scheduled for December 31 for the resolving and calling off of the strike by the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU was in force.
And in regards to this, they vow to mobilize members to the streets in protest if by the expiration of deadline there is no solution.
NANS Zone C Coordinator, Suleiman Sarki, who spoke in Abuja, on Sunday, called on the two parties to come to terms with the view to putting an end to the strike in the nation’s public universities without delay.
With the notion that education was the right of Nigerians and not a privilege, Sarki said “enough is enough.”
“Both the Federal Government and ASUU should know that our silence should not be taken as weakness.
“While we noted with grave concern the insincerity of the government in addressing ongoing problems in our public universities and Zamfara state among others we also discovered ASUU is out for its selfish interest.
“What they tell us as students is different what they present to the government when they go to the negotiation table with the government. They are just after their personal interest and not the interest of the students they claimed. So enough is enough. We have our own ways of tackling the issue and we should not be pushed to resort to that,” he said.
Meanwhile NANS Zone A Coordinator, Umar Faruk Lawal, while addressing the media in Abuja, expressed regret that in spite of several meetings held between both government and ASUU, they were yet to agree with the view to calling off the ongoing strike.
In this regard, he warned:
“Today, we want to announce to the federal government, the ASUU and to the whole world that very soon, we are coming out in full force”.
“We are warning the federal government and not appealing to them because it’s our right. Most of our leaders, from the president to the permanent secretaries went to school free of charge but some of us go to do bricklayer work to come and pay our school fees while some hang around in campuses to do one or two printing work to pay their fees,” he lamented.
According to him, by the time they come out in full force, they will shut down airports and major roads across Nigeria.
He added that students will not vote for a government that was neglecting the Nigerian students.
“I want this message to reach the table of the president that 2019 is around the corner. All the PVCs of the Nigerian students are not meant for the government that is not taking good care of our educational sector. “If they don’t call off this strike before the end of December 31, 2018, we as NANS are going to resolve it for them, “he said.
