The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) staged a protest on Thursday 27th May 2021 to demand an end to the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic Staff (ASUP).
The students barricaded the entrance of the federal ministry of education in Abuja with placards bearing several inscriptions.
Sunday Asuku, NAPS president, asked both parties to reach a decision or risk a national protest.
“We are here to demand immediate reopening of our tertiary institutions. ASUP has been on strike for two months now and nothing has been done about it,” he said
“Government is not saying anything about this and we want them to reopen schools now or else we are not leaving”.
“We have written to them but they have declined. The Federal Government workers are being paid their salaries and allowances likewise our lecturers, so who is going to pay the students for time wasted?”
“ASUP demanded 15 items from FG but only got two which to us is not commendable. As a student body, we are interested in the government paying the lecturers their minimum wage which has been accrued for two years.
“Other MDAs have received theirs since Nov. 2019, why holding our lecturers to ransom. If you can give them this, then we have the right to hold them accountable for not teaching.
“We want the government to call ASUP back to a round table and give them what belongs to them, else by Monday, we will grind the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.”
Polytechnic lecturers have been on strike for two months over the federal government’s failure to meet some of their demands.
ASUP had called attention to the non-implementation of the 2014 NEEDS Report and non-release of revitalisation funds to the sector despite assurances since 2017.
Addressing the students, Chukuemeka Nwajiuba, minister of state for education, noted that all that had to do with ASUP had been settled.
Nwajiuba pointed out that the decision to call off the strike was now solely on the union as they have the power to be fair to students.
“Every one of us is pained by what is going on in the polytechnic sector of our education, many of us spoke with ASUP at the time of their warning strike that we are not running an adhoc government,” the minister said.
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