We don’t need your support in our struggle – ASUU president tells NANS. The Academic Union of Universities’ (ASUU) president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, has claimed that the union did not enlist the aid of students before going on strike. According to Sunday Asefon, the president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), students would no longer back the union’s appeal for intervention, as reported by DAILY POST.
He charged that the ASUU organization was self-serving.
In response to the statement made by the student leadership, Osodeke said that the students who had been held at home due to the industrial action had not backed the union’s fight during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
“Any day students and parents take over this struggle, the ASUU body will not have this issue,” he asserted. Other than moving from one office to another, had they assisted us in any of our struggles? Leave that alone, then. Ask the students you see on the street rather than the leaders. How do we say this? Do we have quality universities? Although the teachers didn’t fight, the public elementary and secondary schools were destroyed. Even with what we currently have, 99% of students still attend public colleges as I talk with you because of our battle. Students will also state that they do not support you. When we first began this fight, did we ask for your assistance?
One, the administration ought to inform Nigerians and ourselves that the funds allegedly granted for revival. When will it be released, where is it being held, and how much is it?
“Two, has UTAS been approved as a mechanism of paying salaries?
Third, did they accept the compromise we came to with their panel? They ought to come and inform us before they simply start publishing.
Students and parents urged the administration to quickly negotiate a settlement with the union during the more than five months that ASUU had been on strike in order for classes to quickly resume.
