Northern Students Protest Against Prolonged University Lecturers, ASUU Strike, Block Taraba Expressway

Students from the 19 Northern states of Nigeria have staged a protest in Jalingo, Taraba State, over the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Under the auspices of the Coalition of Northern Groups’ Students, the undergraduates blocked they ever-busy Jalingo Expressway, a situation that caused gridlock for motorists.

The said the protest became necessary because they were tired of staying at home.

Speaking to journalists, the National Secretary-General of the Coalition, Emuseh Gimba, accused the Nigerian government of failing to meet the demands of the striking lecturers.

Gimba bemoaned the high spate of kidnapping and banditry activities in the region, accusing the government of making life miserable for students by compounding their woes with the lingering ASUU strike.

“The Federal Government has refused to listen to ASUU or even consider their plea. This is something we are supposed to be responsible for,” she said.

“These same people in government have once been students. These people have enjoyed free education in the past. They are the same people that call themselves our parents. If they will not listen to the plea of our lecturers, why won’t they listen to the plea of the Nigerian students?

“Why won’t they consider the fact that they enjoyed free education and the students in this time are not enjoying free education they enjoyed?”

ASUU had embarked on a four-week warning strike on February 14 to press home its demands, with the prominent ones being the renegotiation of the ASUU/FG 2009 agreement and the sustainability of the university autonomy by deploying UTAS to replace the government-imposed IPPIS.

Other demands include the release of the reports of visitation panels to federal universities, distortions in salary payment challenges, funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowance, poor funding of state universities and promotion arrears.

On March 14, the association extended the strike action by another two months to afford the government more time to address all of its demands.

The union in a statement by its President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke on May 9 said it would be extending the ongoing strike by another 12 weeks.