Strike: University students threaten to "shut down Nigeria" | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
13th January 2018
Nigerian University students have threatened to shut down the country if the strike embarked upon by non-academic staff is not called off soon.
They spoke under the aegis of the National Association Of University Students (NAUS) in a statement sent to  on Saturday.
The statement entitled “Education is a right not a privilege!” was jointly signed by Kasimu Abdullahi Idrisu,
Shehu Ibrahim Muhammad, Jegede Abiodun Peter who are NAUS’ national officers.
NAUS stated its dismay at the rot in the education sector which it attributed to the negligible attitude of government. It also reeled on the negative impact of the strike embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
“Over the years, Nigeria Educational sector/Tertiary institutions (Universities) has been faced with several challenges ranging from decayed infrastructure, unstable academic calendar, inconsistent policy planning and implementation to industrial strike actions by university staff union under separate cadre – ASUU, SSANU, NASU, NAAT; amongst others.
“Access and right to university education remains sacrosanct as the negligible attitude of Nigeria at all time towards education is mostly on the negative side.
“It has not been too long that the Industrial strike action embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was called-off, and now; we are faced with new industrial strike action by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU, NASU, and NAAT. Just as usual, this industrial action by the said unions has since manifested its negative effects on the effective running of the universities across the federation.
NAUS prides itself as the premier decision making body for students studying in institutions of higher learning from university cadre. Its leadership declared that it wanted the Federal Government to call SSANU, NASU & NAAT (under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee – JAC) to a roundtable discussion to resolve all pending issues and demands within three weeks.
“NAUS wants to reaffirm that failure by the Federal Government of Nigeria to meet the three weeks ultimatum will leave us with no other option; than to SHUT DOWN THE COUNTRY.
To this effect, the leadership of NAUS wish to call on the leadership of SSANU, NASU & NAAT to cooperate with the Federal Government in resolving the strike action amicably,” the statement added.