Aggrieved students of Bayero University, Kano on Thursday embarked on a street protest to express their anger with the ongoing industrial action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), giving the Federal Government a one-week ultimatum to meet ASUU’s demands.
According to President of the Student Union Government of the university, Comrade Muhammed Sani, the students have been patient enough and will no longer tolerate further disruption to their academic calendar.
“We were forced to stage the protest, because we are tired of staying at home. Our mates in other countries are in school. Why should the case of Nigerian students be different,” Sani told protesters at the gate of the university.
“As part of the struggle to fight for our right, I will like to salute our students for their patience while receiving the negative consequences of bad governance. We believe that the delay in resuming lectures in our universities is not only lamentable but also devastating. We believe even more strongly that now is the time to let our leaders know that enough is enough and we shall wake up and say no to injustice being meted out to Nigerian students.”
Sanni urged the Federal Government to respect the 2009 agreement with ASUU, and review the annual budget for the education sector from eight per cent to 26 per cent in order to ensure adequate rehabilitation of infrastructures in universities.
“In the same vein, we are calling on ASUU to give government more opportunity to dialogue so as to quickly resolve the differences in the best interest of Nigerian students,” he said.
“We are giving ASUU and Federal Government one week to sort this out and resume lectures, otherwise Nigerian students will look for other alternatives to fight for our right. Education is our right and no one should take it away from us.”
Also speaking, Vice-Chairman of ASUU, BUK chapter, Abdulsalam Khalil maintained that ASUU will not renege until its demands are fully met, corroborating Tuesday’s statement by National President of ASUU, Dr Nasir Fagge that the industrial action is a sacrifice for better things to come.
