Students urge FG to meet ASUU’s demands to end strike

Lagos – The South-West zone of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Wednesday called on the Federal government to meet the demands of striking university lecturers to save undergraduates’ future. The zonal Coordinator, Mr Tunde Adeyemo, made the call while addressing a news conference in Lagos. Adeyemo said that the current strike would further weaken the sector and negatively affect the students. The university teachers, under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), embarked on what they described as `total, comprehensive and indefinite` strike on June 30. The lecturers are protesting non-implementation of some sections of an agreement ASUU entered into with the Federal Government in 2009. “All ASUU is demanding now is that the agreement must be fully implemented. “We, students, cannot afford to be indifferent to this agreement just because of our fears about the disruption of the academic calendar. “Considering the teaching and learning facilities in most of our universities, there is an urgent need for the government to be more responsive in the area of mass funding to save the entire sector from collapse. “If this agreement is fully implemented, it will mean better funding of education and a great relief to over-burdened students. “It is based on this premise that we want to lend our voices, for the interest of the students, to appeal to the Federal Government to urgently implement this agreement fully, “ he said. Adeyemo said that university autonomy, improved funding and independent student unionism were of much concern to NANS. “We demand that budget monitoring and NEEDS committees must include elected representatives of staff and students’ unions.