The President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Sunday Asefon on Thursday suggested that the union is prepared to hit the streets to protest the strike embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Mr Asefon made the comment while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
According to Mr Asefon, the government appears not to be interested in ending the strike as focus shifts to elections in 2023.
He referenced the protests in Benin-city embarked by some university students.
“We are talking about education, we are talking about life,” he said. “Our life is no longer being discussed by the leaders, these leaders that we elected; but rather, their focus now is about election. This election that we are talking about is because of their parochial and selfish interest.
“We are battle ready, the highest they can do is to shoot us,” he said. “If they shoot, they will ask their police to shoot us, if we die, the generation coming will know we died because of fighting for them. They would also know that they shot us because they are preparing for election. But we need to take action”
Mr Asefon noted that the government should stop playing politics with the ASUU issue.
“If you have an opportunity to meet the ASUU and federal government, federal government will tell you they inherited the problem from PDP, the ASUU will tell you this negotiation has been on since when Jonathan was there but what we believe as students is that government is continuous; they should be able to fine tune and find a solution to this matter,” he said.
“We should not be at the receiving end every time and as such, they should stop using us to play politics.”
