Travellers were stranded on Monday as aggrieved students in Ogun State blocked the Sagamu-Benin expressway in protest against the ongoing strike action by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The joint protest had in attendance students from Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye; Tai Solarin University of Education, Science and Technology (TASUED), Ijagun; and Federal University of Agriculture (FUNAAB), Abeokuta.
The students stormed the TASUED axis and blocked the expressway, leaving many motorists stranded and travellers trapped.
The students carried placards with inscriptions such as “#End ASUU strike now#”, “We say no to educational stagnancy”, “We are tired of deadlock meetings” and “Education should not be this difficult”.
Speaking at the protest ground, the Chairman, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the state, Damilola Simeon, appealed to the federal government to respond urgently to the yearnings of ASUU.
Simeon stressed that it was high time the federal government and members of ASUU agreed and reached comprise to end the strike.
He said, “We have been clamouring since the commencement of this ASUU strike that something should be done with immediate effect, but both ASUU and the federal government are not listening to us.
“They have to understand the fact that Nigerian students will always be at the receiving end. Our students are suffering, our students are fed up. This whole issue is getting out of hand.
“We do not pray that our students end up engaging themselves in criminal activities as we all know that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
The Student Union Government (SUG) President of TASUED, Don Ayomide, said the protest was necessary to let both federal government and ASUU know the plight of the Nigerian students.
He added that the federal government should endeavour to respect the agreements reached between the two parties, saying that the students were most affected by the strike.
In his reaction, the ASUU Chairman of FUNAAB, Dr Gbenga Adeleye, said the students had a right to quality education, and that they weren’t happy with the ongoing strike by ASUU.
He said, “I will only implore them to be civil with the way they carry out the protest. The issue about the ASUU strike is unfortunate, worrisome and pathetic.”
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