The Council of Student Union Presidents (CSUP) has expressed concern that students are being killed by bandits as a result of their prolonged stay at home due to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, Charmingpro reports
Mr Ishaka Yahaya, Student Union President (SUG), Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna, spoke on Thursday on behalf of all SUG presidents across tertiary institutions at a news conference in Abuja.
Yahaya stated that the Federal Government and the ASUU have nothing to lose during the strike, adding that many students who were supposed to be in school but instead chose to work were being kidnapped and killed.
He urged the government to look into ASUU’s demands and address them so that students could return to school.
“It’s true what they say about two elephants colliding: only the grass suffers.”
“It is clear that the Federal Government and ASUU have nothing to lose in this fight.”
“This is because, while the strike is ongoing, the salaries of Federal Government employees continue to flow, and nothing prevents the salaries of ASUU members from also flowing at the end of every strike.”
“You would agree that the only unfortunate and innocent victims here are the Nigerian students, who have everything to lose.”
“Even if the strike had been called off, many of the students would be unable to serve their country due to age restrictions.”
“So many students would be unable to get government jobs after graduation due to age restrictions,” he lamented.
Yahaya observed that the strike had increased the rate of drug abuse, prostitution, and thuggery, as well as other corresponding wantonness and purposelessness among Nigerian students who, under normal circumstances, should be in school learning.
He stated that insecurity had been exposed to Nigerian students and campuses, and as a result, students had become daily victims of kidnapping by bandits.
“We hereby appeal to the Federal Government to meet ASUU’s demands as soon as possible, as failure to do so would leave us with no choice but to continue with our peaceful demonstration despite the security instability.”
“Because it is better to die for something than to live for nothing,” he continued.