THE National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) announced its intentions to occupy the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on Wednesday in protest against the ongoing industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Chairman, NANS National Task Force, ‘EndASUUstrike,’ Olumide Ojo confirmed this development, according to a report.
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“We decided to use today (Tuesday) to appraise our protest on Monday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja. By tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, we will be grounding the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, Abuja and Kaduna-Abuja Expressway,” Ojo said.
Students across Nigeria had embarked on a series of protests against the strike, which kept them out of school for over seven months.
On September 13, they protested along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, blocking the movement of vehicles and causing severe traffic gridlock.
The students also staged a protest along the Ibadan-Ife-Ilesha highway on September 15.
On Monday, they blocked the roads leading to local and international terminals in the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, leaving many travellers stranded.
Staff of public universities in Nigeria had downed tools on February 14 over recurring disagreements with the federal government.
The union identified the failure of the government to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed between both parties as one of the reasons for the strike action.
Other reasons include poor commitment to payment of academic earned allowance (EAA) and refusal to adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
The ICIR reported in March that students had become frustrated by the constant strike actions by the ASUU, which has continued to disrupt academic activities, with many students staying in school longer than expected.
The ASUU president Emmanuel Osodeke had told The ICIR that the strike action was the only alternative available to the union as the Federal Government and other relevant authorities were uninterested in their welfare.
He noted that students graduate without practical experience in their courses due to the government’s negligence and accused the political elite of being uninterested in developing the country’s education sector.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org
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