Francis Sardauna in Katsina
As the face-off between the federal government and members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) continues unabated, the Students’ Wing of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has urged the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, to resign with immediate effect.
The northern students described the action of the minister during his meeting with the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) as a gross show of “unconscionable immorality, insensitivity and abhorrent to the collective sensibilities of the students and their parents.”
Speaking at a press conference in Katsina yesterday, the National Coordinator of the students’ wing of the CNG, Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, accused the minister and the federal government of lacking the capacity and political will to end the prevailing industrial action.
He explained that failure of the government to resolve the ASUU strike within the stipulated time, the students’ wing of the CNG would join forces with the NANS to ensure a total shutdown of the country.
Charanchi directed all the national Excos of the coalition, state and campus structures, faculty senators and departmental ambassadors to commence massive public mobilisation in readiness for “an impending national day of action.
According to him, “The Students’ Wing of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) is worried that the four-week warning strike declared by ASUU is already in its third week with no hope for a resolution in sight, even as our universities remain shut.
“We are concerned at the frequency of the disruption of the Nigerian education system that keeps frustrating the ambitions and aspirations of the youths to acquire knowledge.
“Sadly, this strike is the second industrial action embarked on by ASUU in less than two years, and the 16th since the inception of the fourth republic in 1999.
“Regrettably, in spite of all these disruptive actions, the university system, the innocent students and their parents are in all cases made the victims.
“The government, in particular, the Minister of Education, lacks the political will, capacity and willingness to bring the matter to an end, and as such, he should resign with immediate effect.”
