Students protest ASUU strike (operation fill the nation )

The National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS) yesterday protested the two-month old
strike by the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU).
The students, led by the Director of Action and
Mobilisation, Comrade Sunday Asefon, marched
on the streets of Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State
capital, carrying placards.
They chanted songs decrying the stance of the
Federal Government, noting that ASUU was
right to insist that the government should fulfil
the agreement reached with the union in 2009.
The students threatened to ensure that
academic activities were also stalled in the
private universities.
According to them, the incessant strikes by
ASUU had aided what they described as “a
continuous recession in the standard of
education since Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
emerged as the president.”
Comrade Asefon said between 2000 and 2011,
Federal Government earned almost N48.48
trillion from the sale of crude oil alone, as
opposed to the N3.10 trillion, which accrued
between 1979 and 1999.
The student leader went on: “The Federal
Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in the 2012
financial year made N5.12 trillion as the
revenue generated from tax paid by the
masses.
“With this tremendous upswing in the revenue
at the disposal of the government, one would
have expected such to translate to a
commensurate improvement in the quality of
public education and other social services.”
Asefon said given the resources at its disposal,
the Federal Government should budget a
sizeable sum for the development of education
as recommended by the United Nations
Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), adding that countries, such as
Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya with smaller
GDP have done so.
Part of their demands were that state
universities, such as the Ekiti State University
(EKSU), Lagos State University (LASU), Osun
State University, Olabisi Onabanjo University
and others should charge half their current
school fees.
Another student leader from EKSU, Comrade
Steven Adara, said those in government and
other affluent Nigerians were not helping
matters “as they are in the habit of sending
their children to private schools, locally and
overseas.”
Said he: “We will mobilise ourselves and ensure
that we disrupt academic activities in the
private universities, because it is the children
of the rich that are in these schools.”