National Association of Nigerian Students – Joint Campus Committee (NANS JCC), Ondo State chapter, on Monday, appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government to resolve their differences to put an end to the incessant strike in higher institutions across the country.
The students’ leaders who stated this in Akure, Ondo State capital, said the frequent industrial action had been affecting the academic pursuit of students in the country, following the refusal of the Federal Government to fulfil and implement the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two parties.
Speaking on behalf of the students’ leaders, Surprise Omotoso, said the two parties had turned Nigerian students to sacrificial lambs in their fight, saying the unending strike is not beneficial to the Nigerian students but their lives at risk.
He said: “A student that is supposed to spend four years in the university now ends up spending six to seven years. Even after wasting the time of students, there is no guarantee that they will get job.
“So we are urging the government and ASUU to settle whatever dispute between them. They shouldn’t use their issues to affect our own life because we believe when two elephants fight the grass suffer. So we don’t want to suffer for what we don’t know.
“We are begging the Federal Government and ASUU to come to our aid by resolving their issues.”
The students also issued a two-week ultimatum to the Ondo State governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, to revert to previous tuitions in all the state institutions or review the raised tuitions downward, saying the governor had breached the agreement signed with the students’ leadership on the increase of tuitions throughout the state’s territorial institutions in 2020.
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According to him, the governor had promised to provide palliatives to mitigate the impact of the increase, such as scholarship programs and infrastructure improvements, among other things.
The student leader said “It saddens my heart to inform you that tertiary education has been taken away from the reach of indigent citizens of the state. Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, the first Governor of Ondo State knew the importance of education when he championed free and standard education.
“This legacy was sustainable until the arrival of the incumbent administration and their shocking belief that education is not meant for the poor. The systemic destruction of the Ondo State education legacy by the incumbent administration is not only shocking but condemnable.
“While schools are starved of subvention, our government serenade themselves to luxurious lifestyle and urge schools to look inward for revenue.
“One wonders if truly the administration is recouping what it spent to acquire the exalted office. Daily, we watch helplessly as our colleagues drop out of school and others resorting to self-help.
“To worsen the situation, the state’s irregular payment of salaries has turned our education system into what we Yoruba call “à bÃkú”. Our lecturers are owed substantial amount of salaries.
“Some haven’t been paid for the past six or seven months. How do they want these lecturers to feed or remain incorruptible when they are not paid?
“We urge the Ondo State Government to as a matter of urgency see to the reversal in the tuition of schools across the State. Not many families in a predominantly civil servant State like Ondo can afford ₦2m per session.
“Except the govt is encouraging massive large scale corruption, we don’t see how civil servants owed months of salary can pay such an huge amount?”
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