The President, National Association of Nigerian Students, Sunday Ashefon, on Thursday disclosed that the student body cannot resolve the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
This is as the body has come under fire by stakeholders who have accused it of not pressuring the Federal Government to find lasting solutions to incessant strikes in Nigerian universities.
Speaking during the 40th anniversary of NANS which held at the National Universities Commission in Abuja, Ashefon described strike actions in the tertiary education sector in Nigeria as a challenge that the administrations of the student body will not be able to resolve.
He said, “Perhaps the tertiary education sector in Nigeria is faced with one of the strongest tests in our history in the last few years. We have witnessed the total collapse of the sector as a result of the incessant strike.
“This challenge alone is bigger than what any NANS administration could resolve. However, our nation’s education system is on the brink and the entire nation must rise to the rescue. Where we go from here as a nation is dependent on how we collectively gather the crackers of the collapsing education system and rebuild it together as a nation.
“Nigeria does not belong here, our tertiary education system does not belong here and this is already taking its tore on the nation’s economy, security, and faith of the young people in the nation and its education system. We all must rise to the rescue.
“As we celebrate today, let us remember that we are only gathered here because education is part of our story and life, we must therefore do all it takes to ensure this part of our national life does not become a story of the past”.
NANS is the umbrella body of all Nigerian students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria and the diaspora.
