ASUU Strike: NANS Talks Tough as Nigerian Govt Says No Money To Meet Lecturers’ Demands
- Nigerian students have promised to do all within their powers to ensure that lecturers go back to their classrooms despite the strike action
- This assurance was given by the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students on Thursday, March 3
- NANS warned that any attempt to keep students out of school would be totally resisted by the association
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The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has said there is no retreat, no surrender in its struggle towards ensuring that lecturers and students return back to the classroom as soon as possible.
This reaction follows the current position of the Nigerian government that there is no money to meet up the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Source: UGC
Recall that the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige had said that the federal government had no financial capacity to meet some of the demands of the lecturers.
Ngige stated that most of the agreements reached between the lectures and the government were signed under the past administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
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He disclosed this on Thursday, March 4, while appearing as a guest on Channels Television.
But the NANS coordinator, southwest, Fiyinfoluwa Tegbe, in an exclusive chat with Legit.ng said the students’ body does not care about what government officials are saying at this point.
Tegbe stated that the association's concern and demand are to ensure that their lecturers return to class. He stressed that any attempt to make students remain on the streets would be resisted by NANS.
Though Tegbe said their final decision on the latest comment by the federal government would depend on what the national leadership of NANS would be saying, he is optimistic that an official statement would soon be released.
His words:
"As a leader, we are not concerned by what Ngige said. One of the things we are going to do is that there will be no retreat, no surrender.
"The minister cannot be coming out to tell us that nonsense because they are getting paid and they are not paying us for our time being wasted in school. Our rents continue to expire while we remain in school for years."
"Landlords and ladies disturb us over rents where we school. Four to five-year courses are now metamorphosing into 6-7 years courses, which is very wrong."
“We don’t care about what Ngige is saying. They have money to be doing their elections and some other things, but they don’t have money to be paying our lecturers. That’s corruption."
A possible sell-out by the leadership of NANS
Responding to the issue of sell-out by the leadership of NANS, Tegbe assured that the association's leadership is quite purposeful in its demands.
He said NANS cannot disappoint students by yielding to any form of inducement by the government.
He said:
“We are part of the major stakeholders in this struggle and we don’t settle for less. Many people had earlier speculated that Asefon as the NANS president will sell out, but you can even see our position from the last meeting when we met with the minister.
You know we are not loyalists of anybody. We only have the mandate of Nigerian students. We are not hungry comrades. We didn’t put our lives on the line because of the money we are going to make from the struggle. We are not getting paid by anybody."
“Any attempt to jeopardize the interest of Nigerian students both in the southwest or in any other zone and in the nation is going to be resisted with all alacrity. We are not for a sellout. We don’t sell struggle. God will lead us through.”
Minister of Education Adamu Adamu walks out on students over ASUU strike
Legit.ng recalls that a meeting between the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, and protesting students ended in deadlock as the minister walked out on them.
The minister who appeared to be uncomfortable with the position of the students after their president’s speech staged a walk-out.
Legit.ng gathered that the Minister later called the students back the same night to apologize to them over his action, and appealed to them to put on hold further protests.
ASUU strike: Minister Ngige meets Buhari, reveals how much FG has paid lecturers so far
The industrial strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had resulted in a meeting between the president and Chris Ngige.
The minister of labour and employment said lecturers have been paid a total of N97.2 billion since the agreement with ASUU.
Ngige added that the Nigerian government is not opposed to the payment of good salaries and emoluments to university lecturers.
Source: Legit.ng
Nnenna Ibeh Nnenna Ibeh is a journalist with over 10 years of experience with various media organisations including Premium Times. Being on the front burner of reporting politics and the different dimensions of governance, she is also passionate about girls' education and women's and children's health. With degrees in Journalism, Peace Studies & Conflict Res., and Dev. Studies, Nnenna has worked in the dev. sector as a communications officer for the Centre for Democracy and Dev. email: ibehnnenna@gmail.com
Adoyi Ali Ali Adoyi is a prolific writer and a graduate of the Benue State University, Makurdi, Benue State. Adoyi holds a B.A Theatre and Communications Arts. He has bagged many awards both in academics and in journalism. Some of the awards are 10 years Journalism Merit Award, Best graduating student (Dept) Most Outstanding student (Faculty), and others. Adoyi can be reached here: adoyi.ali@corp.legit.ng
