The National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS) has linked the rising wave of crime in
the last two months to the idleness of
students, who are currently bearing the brunt
of the impasse between the Federal
Government and the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU), following the strike
embarked on by the union.
The students’ body, therefore, appealed to
the striking union and the federal government
to resume negotiations and ensure quick
resolution of the strike, which is now in its
13th week.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on
Monday, acting Senate President of NANS,
Mr. John Shima lamented that about three
years of study time had been lost to strikes in
the last 10 years.
The lost time, he said, was enough to
graduate from an undergraduate course in
other climes.
“ASUU and the federal government should go
back to the negotiating table. Even after
wars, issues are resolved at the round table,
Nigerian students are tired of sitting at
home,” he said.
Shima added that although the lecturers were
protesting the decline of infrastructure in the
nation’s universities, the decline was not
limited to the universities alone. This, he said,
had led to the continual drop in Nigeria’s
standard of tertiary education.
“We call for a NEEDS Assessment in our
polytechnics and Colleges of Education as was
done for the universities to ascertain their
level of decay. This may also stop unions in
these institutions from embarking on their
own strikes,” he said.
The students’ body also appealed to President
Goodluck Jonathan to urgently appoint a
substantive minister to head the education
ministry.
The candidate, it added, should be an
individual from the education sector, who
had exhibited the necessary competence,
clear understanding of the sector and has the
capacity to command the respect of
stakeholder unions in the sector.
“We commend the out-gone education
minister, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufa’i, for doing
her best while she served as minister,” Shima
said.
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