ASUU STRIKE: Students Plan To Block All Roads InMass Protests

Plans may be underway by some Nigerian students to organise from Tuesday, a mass protest aimed at highlighting the woes bedeviling public education in the country. Organised by the Joint Action Front (JAF), the protesting students in the South-West zone may block all roads leading to Lagos State tomorrow. According to JAF, the protests, which will kick off at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) office at Yaba,Lagos at 8 a.m., will also include zonal rallies in Kano, Ibadan, Owerri, Calabar, Abuja, among others. According to JAF, the aim is todraw attention to the bleak future that awaits Nigerian children due to the neglect ofpublic education, “while children of top politicians andgovernment officials are trained in private schools in Nigeria and abroad with funds looted from public coffers.” The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had, on July 2, declared an indefinite strike over unresolved issues contained in the 2009 FG/ASUU Agreement. The union took the decision “after exhausting all availableavenues,” when the Federal Government breached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) they both signed in January 2011. One of the contentious issueswas the non-payment of Earned Allowances. However, a meeting organised by the Federal Ministry of Education to resolve the issue ended in a deadlock. A senior government official was quoted as saying that it was impossible for the Federal Government to implement the MoU. The union has also vowed not to suspend the strike until its demands are met.