Students converged on Ibadan, close to the University of Ibadan gate, to stage a peaceful protest over the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), whom the Federal Government has failed to supply their demands.
The protest was reported to have been staged on Friday.
Solomon Emiola, a 200-level student of UI, who led the protest in Ibadan, said the protest was necessary because the students were tired of staying at home.
“Our leaders have continued to politic with our future. Our goal is to shut down the whole of Ibadan until our demand is met,” he said.
He explained that the protest would continue daily until the government listened to students’ yearnings.
Another student, Daniel Eyilabor said, “If we say that school is a scam, we will not be wrong because our lives are on hold, and those who even graduated do not even have jobs. We have to stand up for our rights.”
Meanwhile, Emelieze Andrew, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), stated that the protest was to awaken the spirit of students whose rights are trampled upon by the government, adding that the lingering ASUU strike was due to the negligence and failure of leadership.
The protest took a new dimension when the Students’ Union Leader of UI, Yinka Adewole, popularly known as Mascot, stopped the protesters from locking the UI gate.
Mr Adewole said most of the protesters were not UI students. He said the university students had scheduled their protest to be held on May 17.
Meanwhile, security operatives were on the ground to forestall the breakdown of law and order.
It was gathered that the students also barricaded the UI-Ojo expressway in front of the school gate.
Recall the university teachers had turned down the plea of the government in a recent tripartite meeting, seeking to make them go back to work.
Although the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige had said they had reached some agreements which they hoped will mature soon, an ASUU member had countered the claimed saying, “There was nothing on ground for us to consider. We are not stopping the strike untill something concrete is done”.
Earlier on Wednesday, the National Association of University Students (NAUS), had staged a peaceful protest in Ibadan, with the convergence point fixed for UI gate.
According to the National Chairman of the association, Comrade Shittu Adeniyi, the protest was necessary to register the frustration of Nigerian students over the prolonged ASUU strike and at the same time advocate for a permanent end to the strike.
Meanwhile, similar protests by students have been ongoing in Ile-Ife, Ondo, Benin and other prominent federal universities.
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