This was just as students of the Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife, staged a similar protest on the strike in front of The PUNCH Place on
the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State.
The PUNCH had reported how ASUU, on Monday, extended its
rollover strike by 12 weeks to provide enough time for the Federal Government
to attend to its demands.
UNILORIN students, during the protest, said they planned to
take their protest to major places like the Government House, roads linking
Ilorin Airport, state House of Assembly, Federal Secretariat, police
headquarters, and the Department of State Services, among other places, if the
meeting between ASUU and the Federal Government did not resolve the lingering
crisis this week.
The protesting students lamented their continued stay at
home due to the strike and called on the Federal Government to meet ASUU’s
demands to enable them to complete their academic activities.
Speaking with journalists, the Students Union President,
Taofik Waliu, said the protest was aimed at creating awareness among
stakeholders and members of the public.
Waliu said, “We want to graduate. The Federal Government
should meet ASUU’s demands. We don’t plan to move around town today. We hope
that soon, the ASUU strike will be a thing of the past whereby about-to-be
graduates can graduate and 300 Level students can move up, and so on.
“However, if nothing fruitful comes out after the Federal
Government’s meeting with ASUU this week, we will move en masse continuously
with other students of 10 educational institutions in the state to block roads
to various places in the state capital to register our displeasure over the
lingering strike.
“This is just to send a message to the government that we
are tired and they should meet ASUU’s demands.”
The state chairman of the National Association of Nigerian
Students, Salman Yisa, called on state governors to intervene, adding that the
issue is beyond the Federal Government.
OAU students, who stormed the entrance of The PUNCH, said
they did so because they believed their grievances would be publicised.
The President of the OAU Student Union Government, Olayiwola
Folarin, in an interview with one of our correspondents, described their action
as a warning, adding that they have plans to hit the streets if nothing was
done soonest.
The union’s Welfare Officer, Dada Arafat, said, “We are in
solidarity with ASUU, appealing for the reopening of schools and provision of
funds meant for laboratories and structures.”
The union’s Clerk, Odetunde Dickson, added that students
were tired of constant industrial action.
The management of OAU, however, on Tuesday directed all
students to vacate their halls of residence.
A statement signed by the Dean, Division of Student Affairs,
Prof. I.O. Aransi, dated May 10, 2022, said students must comply with the
directive not later than Friday, May 13.
According to him, the directive was a sequel to the latest
development on the ongoing strike embarked upon by all the staff unions in the
nation’s federal universities.
The statement read in part, “To this end, all undergraduate
and postgraduate students in the halls of residence are directed to vacate
their respective hostels and go home till further notice.
“It is our hope that issues necessitating the strike action
will be resolved as soon as possible.”
Government meets ASUU May 16
Meanwhile, ASUU may meet with the government side on May 16.
The Chairman of the Federal University of Technology, Minna
chapter of ASUU, and member of the union’s National Executive Council, Dr.
Gbolahan Bolarin, disclosed this in an interview with The PUNCH in Abuja.
Bolarin said, “I am aware there will be a meeting coming up
next week from May 16 with the government, but we are not aware of any
invitation from the Minister of Labour and Employment. Holding a meeting is not
the issue, the most important thing is the implementation.
“They will call us for meetings and then say the government
does not have the money. When aviation declared strike, they settled it because
they are mostly affected. Once our leaders are not affected, they do not care.
When bad fuel was imported, they did not really care. Our leaders are not
sincere, the day the government becomes sincere, issues will be settled.
“We have given them 12 weeks and we hope that they will
resolve the issues within this window. This is something they can resolve
within a day if they are serious.”.
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