NANS gives FG 14-day ultimatum to resolve SSANU, NASU, others strike

THE leadership of National Association of Nigerian Students on Monday gave the Federal Government 14-day ultimatum to end the ongoing strike embarked by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-academic staff union of Nigerian universities.

NANS President, Comrade Haruna Kadiri, who gave the ultimatum at a news conference in Abuja, said failure to comply with this demand would lead to mass mobilisation of Nigerian students and union leaders to occupy the streets of Abuja.

The associations that makeup JAC include the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).

The unions embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike on December 10, 2017, over non-implementation of the agreement entered with the Federal Government in 2009 and 2017.

The NANS, however, appealed to JAC to shift ground in order to find a lasting solution to the impasse.

Kadiri said: “We are urging the Federal Government as a matter of urgency within 14 days to do the needful for JAC (SSASNU, NASU and NAAT) to suspend the industrial action.

“Failure to comply with our demands will lead to mass mobilisation of Nigerian students and union leaders to occupy the streets of Abuja.

“We are also urging JAC to shift ground so as to see a final solution to the impasse as when two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.

“We also want to appeal to the leadership of JAC to look into institutions that have peculiar cases which are about to start exams and backwardness in academic calendar and temper justice with mercy.

“As anything that will distract the exams will affect the academic calendar of most institutions that are academically backwards as well as the students’ academic performances,” he said.

Kadiri, further said that the association frowned with dismay over the insincerity of government in handling the labour crisis in the Nigerian universities that had led to the loss of lives of students and property.

He added that the ongoing strike had caused more harm. He listed one of the harms to include the inability of students that had been mobilised for NYSC to get their testimonials to report to camp, for example, University of Jos.

According to him, students are becoming idle at home due to some universities that are totally shut down, adding that the students now indulge in all sorts of social vices at home.

“Institutions that are about writing exams are now under threat by the non-teaching staff of such institutions.

“That is why we are pleading with the government and the unions to shift ground, ‘’he said.

He further called on the Nigerian students to be patient and also show solidarity in the struggle to call off the strike.