Nigerian students demand education minister’s resignation over prolonged strike
LAGOS, Nigeria (The Informant247) – Nigeria’s largest student body on Tuesday called for the resignation of the country’s minister of education Adamu Adamu over the lingering strike embarked upon by university lecturers.
“This protracted strike is becoming a madness and the student populace will not take it,” the National Association of Nigerian Students Vice President Akinteye Babatunde told reporters during a protest that saw the students shutting down the ever-busy Lagos-Ibadan highway.
The students insisted that the blockade would continue in different states until the Nigerian Government resolved their impasse with the lecturers.
Background
For almost seven months, students in federal government-owned universities have been stuck at home, forced out of class by a protracted strike by lecturers.
The protest over pay, welfare and crumbling facilities by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has shut down universities since February 14 in the latest industrial action by academic workers in public universities across Africa’s most populous nation.
The union’s leadership, however, declared an indefinite strike earlier this month after several extensions to give the government time to meet their demands.
The latest strike is the second longest. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Nigerian university teachers went on strike for nine months – the longest in the nation’s history.
