Strike: Students embark on protest

…call for removal of Onosode, Egwu

By Dayo Johnson & Ola Ajayi

IBADAN—APPARENTLY bored by the face-off between the Federal Government and members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), students of the University of Ibadan (U.I), yesterday protested calling for the end of the strike.

Speaking with newsmen, the Chairman, Students’ Union Transition Committee of the institution, Mr. Raimi Oluwadamilare said the protest was to tell all those concerned that they were tired of staying at home.

He said, “Our demand is that the Federal Government should listen to the striking staff and should stop toying with our future.” Though, it was a peaceful protest the action caused some traffic snarl-up on the Ojoo-UI road.

They called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to shift ground so that their future would not be jeopardized.
Specifically, they urged the Federal Government to return to the negotiation table and work out the grey areas with ASUU and that in the spirit of good governance and merits of democracy, the FG should meet the demands of the three striking unions in the university.

They used the opportunity to warn against the impending increase in tuition fees from its current state to N180, 000, adding that this would certainly meet the stiff opposition from the students. Security agents were at the gates keeping vigilance on the students so that there would not be breakdown of law and order.

Meanwhile, the strike embarked upon by the lecturers made the institution look like a ghost town as most of the halls of residence were deserted.

Also, following the non resolution of the Federal Government/ASUU crisis, students of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) yesterday called for the removal of the chairman of the negotiation team, Deacon Gamaliel Onosode and Minister of Education, Dr Sam Egwu

The students in a statement in Akure “condemned “the lackadaisical and non-chalant attitude of the chairman of the negotiation team and the Education Minister in resolving the crisis.

They expressed worries over the overbearing effects of the imbroglio which have made many of them to be roaming the streets. They urged the government and the university unions to resolve their differences because of the future of the students.

According to a statement signed by the President and Secretary of Student Union government, Oluwaseun Enikanosaye and Gbenga Adesina the students asked the government to re-prioritise  its agenda in order that education would take the front burner.