The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on Presidential aspirants in the All Progress Congress and Peoples Democratic Party to raise money in order to meet the demands of the striking university lecturers.
The student body made the appeal in a statement signed by the Chairman of NANS, Ogun State Joint Campus Committee (JCC), Kehinde Damilola Simeon, on Wednesday, in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had on Monday announced the extension of the ongoing strike.
ASUU had demanded the implementation of a Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed between it and the Federal Government.
ALSO READ: Deborah Samuel’s Killer Is Not From Sokoto And He Is Also Not A Nigerian- Police Source
Some of the demands include revitalisation of public universities; earned academic allowances and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution for payment of university lecturers.
But in the statement by NANS, the appeal to these eminent Nigerians to help ASUU had become imperative following the failure of the FG to accede to the demands of the striking lecturers.
The student body therefore urged all presidential aspirants to come to the rescue of Nigerian students towards ensuring that public universities are reopened.
“All the Presidential aspirants, especially those from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must rise up and come to the rescue of Nigerian Students.
“If truly the aspirants mean well for Nigerians as they are claiming, and if they have the love of Nigerian students at heart, they should raise the fund to meet the demands of ASUU, since the Federal Government has failed woefully in its commitment to improving the education sector.
“Today, in Nigeria, both university and polytechnic education are paralysed due to the ongoing strike actions by both members of ASUU and ASUP. It is very unfortunate and unacceptable.
“Nigerian students hereby call on the presidential aspirants, in the spirit of patriotism and in the interest of development to rally round Nigerian students.
“All of these aspirants paid huge amounts of money to procure their nomination forms, so donating funds to rescue the tertiary education in Nigeria should not be too difficult for them.
“It is only by doing this, that Nigerian students and Nigerians in general will respect and show support for their ambitions”. The statement concluded.
