The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has linked the
rising wave of crime in the last two months to the idleness of students,
who are currently bearing the brunt of the impasse between the Federal
Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),
following the strike embarked on by the union.
The students’ body, therefore, appealed to the striking union and the
federal government to resume negotiations and ensure quick resolution
of the strike, which is now in its 13th week.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Monday, acting Senate
President of NANS, Mr. John Shima lamented that about three years of
study time had been lost to strikes in the last 10 years.
The lost time, he said, was enough to graduate from an undergraduate course in other climes.
“ASUU and the federal government should go back to the negotiating
table. Even after wars, issues are resolved at the round table, Nigerian
students are tired of sitting at home,” he said.
Shima added that although the lecturers were protesting the decline
of infrastructure in the nation’s universities, the decline was not
limited to the universities alone. This, he said, had led to the
continual drop in Nigeria’s standard of tertiary education.
“We call for a NEEDS Assessment in our polytechnics and Colleges of
Education as was done for the universities to ascertain their level of
decay. This may also stop unions in these institutions from embarking on
their own strikes,” he said.
The students’ body also appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to
urgently appoint a substantive minister to head the education ministry.
The candidate, it added, should be an individual from the education
sector, who had exhibited the necessary competence, clear understanding
of the sector and has the capacity to command the respect of stakeholder
unions in the sector.
“We commend the out-gone education minister, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufa’i,
for doing her best while she served as minister,” Shima said.
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