ASUU strike: NANS begs Atiku, Tinubu, others to raise money for striking lecturers

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has persuaded former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other presidential aspirants to contribute money to meet the demands of the striking university lecturers.

The Ogun State chapter of the apex students’ body made the persuasion via a statement signed by its chairman, Comrade Damilola Simeon on Wednesday.

The students, who currently suffer from the lingering nationwide protest, said the appeal came as a result of “failure of the Federal Government to accede to the demands of the striking lecturers.”

The chairman, via the statement, persuaded the political actors and presidential aspirants to rescue Nigerian students using generous donations so that public universities could be reopened.

“All the presidential aspirants, especially those from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must rise up and come to the rescue of all Nigerian students.

“If truly the aspirants mean well for Nigerians as they are claiming and if they have the love of Nigerian students at heart, they should raise the fund to meet the demands of ASUU, since the Federal Government has failed woefully in its commitment to improving the education sector.

“Today in Nigeria, both university and polytechnic education is paralysed due to the ongoing strike actions by both members of ASUU and ASUP. It is very unfortunate and unacceptable.

“Nigerian students hereby call on the presidential aspirants, in the spirit of patriotism and in the interest of development, to rally round Nigerian students.

“All of these aspirants paid huge amount of money to procure their nomination forms, so donating funds to rescue the tertiary education in Nigeria should not be too difficult for them.

“It is only by doing this that Nigerian students and Nigerians in general will respect and show support for their ambitions,” the statement read partly.

Recall that over 20 aspirants picked the APC presidential forms at the rate of N100 million each.

While in the opposition PDP, the N40 million presidential form was picked by about 17 interested party members.