National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has criticised the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over its insistence on collecting six months’ salary being arrears during the period of their strike action against the Federal government.
The FG said it won’t pay the lecturers for the period they were on strike and ASUU has vowed to continue its stay at home action because of the disagreement. But NANS said in a statement signed by its president Sunday Asefon on Thursday: “We believe that if the government has met substantially major areas of their demand, ASUU should tread the path of honour by calling off the strike. We no longer believe that this continuous strike is fashionable, reasonable, justifiable, and necessary.
“ASUU had masqueraded some of their interests as the interest of tertiary education in Nigeria, and at some point masqueraded their interest as the interest of the students. We know that ASUU is less concerned about the interest of the students because of our experiences with them at our various tertiary institutions.
“They expel and rusticate students for protesting for basic needs such as water, power, habitable hostel accommodation, etc.
“ASUU members arbitrarily failed students for questioning their positions or opinions and sometimes for asking too many questions. These same people cannot suddenly turn around to claim they are fighting for our interest, our interest they trample upon at every given opportunity at our various tertiary institutions,” the body said.