University students in Kaduna State on Monday vowed to take to the street to protest the failure of the Federal Government to reach an agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to ensure the ongoing strike is called off.
DAILY POST recalls that ASUU, in a statement on Monday, by its president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, extended its ongoing strike for another 12 weeks.
Reacting on Monday, immediately after the news spread across social media, several students who were patiently waiting for the positive outcome of the Federal Government meeting with ASUU promised to embark on peaceful protest if the matter is not settled within some hours.
A student of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Mr Jonathan Momoh, who said he has spent seven years in the university and should be serving now, promised to mobilize other students for a peaceful protest
“I was admitted to read a course of four years, but here I am spending seven years. Time wasted is not my fault, but ASUU-Federal Government related grievances. If they did not settle their grievances, within some hours, I will mobilise for peaceful protest,” he said.
Also, a student in the Department of Microbiology at the Bayero University Kano, Miss Modupe Fashola, expressed bitterness about the continuous strike.
She pleaded with the union to call off the strike in the interest of students who are going through the pains of staying at home.
“I am tired of eating my parent’s food. I was not born to remain in school for the rest of my life,” she lamented.
According to her, it will be unfair for the Federal Government to pay deaf ears to ASUU’s demands, while their children are schooling in foreign countries.
“What have we done to the Federal Government to deserve all these punishments. It’s a punishment because you went to school hoping to graduate in a particular year, but your prayers, aspirations, and hopes are dashed,” she said.
Also speaking, a man who identified himself as union president in one of the federal universities, Dr Jonathan Adamu said all the student union leaders are meeting within some days to take a stand on their planned peaceful protest against the Federal Government’s nonchalant attitude to lecturers.
“The Federal Government will use lecturers during their elections, after suffering as returning officers for their various political offices, they pay them back with a meagre salary. When they complain, they threaten them with, the “no work, no pay” slogan. It’s not their fault,” he said.
He called on lecturers to learn their lessons from the way the very people they suffered for as returning officers in various polling units across the country are handling their issues without due regard.
