TheNational Association of Nigerian Students(NANS) has charged the President Goodluck Jonathan-led government to implement the agreement it had with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in 2009, to avert a strike action which will paralyse the tertiary education sector of the country.
The association also called on the government at all levels to look into the welfare of Nigerian students, which, according to them, had deteriorated.
This was contained in a press statement released by the association after its meeting in Awka.??
The release, signed by the deputy senate president of the NANS, Nwachukwu Okpalaoka, and made available to LEADERSHIP urged the federal government to give attention to the tertiary education sub-sector by honouring its agreement with the ASUU, so as to avert the crisis which will be brought on by a strike action.??
The NANS called for the reinstalling of the bursary system as a way of taking care of the needs of students in tertiary institution and checkmating violent crimes.??
“We are calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to implement the ASUU/FG agreement of 2009 to prevent further damage to the already battered educational sector in Nigeria, which will be aggravated in the event of another ASUU strike.”??
The student body insisted that President Jonathan is in a better position to know about what should be done to avert strikes in the tertiary education sector, being a former lecturer himself.?
Okpalaoka, in the release, urged the federal government and other state governments to pay attention to student bodies in most tertiary institution, as they are a veritable body in forming the character of the youths towards political aspirations in the future.?