ASUU Strike, Fuel Scarcity: Motorists Stranded As Nigerian Students Protest On Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

Several commuters were stranded on Tuesday along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, during a protest by the National Association of Nigerian Students.

The students blocked the expressway to protest the current one-month warning strike imposed upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, after their inability to strike a deal with the Federal Government vis-a-vis the 2009 FG-ASUU Agreement.

The students who had converged at the Redeemed Church axis of Mowe around 8 am, also protested against the current fuel scarcity in the country, hence causing an obstruction on the ever-busy highway.

The NANS Chairman in Ogun State, Mr Damilola Simeon, who spoke on behalf of the students, appealed to FG to work on the demands of the ASUU, noting that students were the most affected by the strike.

Simeon further pleaded to both the FG and ASUU, to return to a roundtable and find a lasting solution to the constant strikes that had paralysed academic activities in the nation’s universities, making the oppressed students helplessly idle.

“Our time is being wasted. Age will be against us by the time we graduate and go into the labour market.

He added, “We will be forced to pay extra rents as most of us are staying in private hostels while some of our colleagues will be distracted, discouraged and will probably jettison schooling for illegal activities.”

He further appealed to the government for more funding in tertiary institutions to ensure the perfect working conditions for teaching and non-teaching staff.

Speaking on fuel scarcity, he noted that it had far-reaching adverse effects on the masses, majorly the ousted great Nigerian students, adding that the agencies concerned should do the needful as soon as they can to restore normalcy in the heated polity.