The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has appealed to universities owned by state governments to pull out of the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and resume academic activities.
This was as the students’ national body described the “total and indefinite strike” recently declared by the university lecturers as “unpatriotic and wicked”.
NANS President, Mr. Sunday Asefon, made the appeal in a statement issued on Wednesday and made available to newsmen in Abuja.
He alleged that the decision to extend the strike after six months was easy for ASUU because they keep employment at various private universities around the country.
The NANS President said ASUU leadership in state institutions must toe the path of honour and call off the strike.
Asefon said, “We have taken the time to review the decision of ASUU to declare an indefinite strike after the ongoing six-month strike. We consider the decision not only unpatriotic, unnecessary but wicked and definitely not in the interest of our nation nor the tertiary education system in Nigeria.”
“We call on State Government to forthwith liaise with Vice-Chancellors of state institutions to announce the resumption of academic activities and grant the Vice-Chancellors authority to enforce the resumption as state universities should never have joined the strike in the first place.”
ASUU embarked on strike on February 14, 2022, over a number of issues including the non-payment of Revitalization Fund and Earned Academic Allowances, EAA, as well as the non-adoption of the union-backed University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, over the FG-backed Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS.
