Comrade Sunday Asefon, President National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, on Thursday, accused Nigerian leaders of not caring about students who are at home since the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU embarked on strike.
Comrade Asefon who also said that the leaders have diverted attention to the 2023 general elections, has promised that NANS would disrupt the forthcoming primary elections of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, if the industrial action is not called off.
Asefon had during the breakfast programme of the Channels Television ‘Sunrise Daily,’ accussed the Federal Government of a lack of commitment and sincerity in resolving the impasse between the government and the striking university workers.
He also threatened that the streets protest which kicked off at the University of Benin on Wednesday would spread nationwide.
According to him “If we fail to fight now, our unborn generation will inherit this problem. ASUU strike is over 40 years in our university system and no government has been able to find a solution to it.
“Education is the bedrock of our lives and our leaders who we elected into various political offices are no more discussing that, rather, their focus now is on the 2023 elections. They are only interested in their parochial and selfish interests. This month of May is very significant, after this, the next thing they would be talking about is February and March next year, which is the general election. There is a tendency that they would forget us if we keep quiet.
“It is very unfortunate that most of our leaders who received free education have turned deaf ears to the plight of the sector which produced them. In their time, they protested because there was no chicken in their meals, not because the universities were locked or dilapidated.
“I am not even sure that the government is aware of our threat to disrupt primary elections of APC and PDP. I am yet to get a call from the government. The bible said that people will not believe until they see the signs, maybe FG is waiting for the signs which will surely come if nothing is done to end the lingering strike. Part of the signs is what happened in Benin yesterday. Students are resuming back to the streets and in a couple of days, you will hear our stories across the nation.
“We made a request to be part of the negotiation to end the ASUU strike and FG has not yielded to that call,” he said.
