ASUU strike: NANS threatens to shut private universities

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has threatened to shut down all private universities in the country should the nine-month old Academic Staff Union of Universities strike continue.

The newly elected president of the association, Sunday Asefon, disclosed this on Wednesday while speaking at a PUNCH Online interview programme, The Roundtable.

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Asefon decried that the industrial strike is the longest ever embarked by the university lecturers.

He said that the association will engage government representatives and the leadership of ASUU with a view to finding a lasting solution to the persisting industrial strike.

He added that if the two parties fail to reach an agreement at the end of the meeting, the association will not hesitate to shut down all private universites in the country.

He said, “In the history of ASUU strike, this is the longest ASUU strike so far, going to nine months now. My administration frowns at it. We will be meeting with the representatives of the Federal Government and that of ASUU to see how the two can shift grounds so that our students can go back to the classroom. It is just a story of where two elephants fight, the grass there suffers it.

“There must be a lasting solution, ASUU must stop this strike and Federal Government must listen to ASUU. The two should synergized, they should pity the common students who have been at home.

“If you are talking about money, the Federal Government will still release the money at the end of the day. The strike has not stopped the salaries of ASUU (members). But it is the students that are at the receiving end of this long ASUU strike.

Earlier on Wednesday, the federal government postponed the negotiation meeting it had scheduled with ASUU.

The postponement message was contained in message by the Deputy Director, the Federal  Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan.

ASUU has been on strike since March this year over the “non-payment of Earned Academic Allowances, non-provision of revitalization fund, among others.