Posted by The Academic Staff Union of Universities is now on strike, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has received criticism from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) for his lack of response thus far (ASUU).
In order to show their unhappiness, the student union body, who had originally planned for the protest’s confluence point to be at the Iwo Road Roundabout in Ibadan, decided to relocate the protest’s location to the South-West PDP stakeholders’ meeting.
The National Public Relations Officer of NANS, Giwa Yetunde, highlighted in a statement that Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, has not taken any position to identify with the students since the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ strike action started on February 14, 2022.
“Our notice has recently been attracted to the fact that the South-West Peoples’ Democratic Party will have a stakeholders conference today in Ibadan in preparation for the 2023 general election,” the statement said.
It is noteworthy that the party’s presidential candidate has not felt it appropriate to express any kind of solidarity with the Nigerian students and lecturers since the start of this industrial action by the national leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, despite the fact that this strike action is having a negative impact on both students and lecturers.
Even more significant is the fact that, as a presidential contender, we haven’t seen or read his educational policy platform. This sends a terrible message to Nigerian students as a whole, implying that the elites in power do not care about us and that there is no difference between the PDP and the All Progressives Congress.
“Based on the aforementioned, we therefore proclaim that the Ibadan protest, which was originally slated to take place at Iwo Road, shall be moved to the PDP gathering location from wherever our convergence point is.
“Enough with tampering with the educational future of Nigerian youngsters. And once more, we reject Chris Ngige, the labor minister, and Mallam Adamu Adamu, the minister of education, according to the statement.