The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has berated the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for its decision to extend its strike indefinitely.
In a statement yesterday by the NANS President Adedayo Sunday Asefon, the students’ body slammed the university teachers of embarking on a mission to collapse the nation’s university education system and systematically elevate private universities where many of them have their children attending.
The statement reads, “We have taken the time to review the decision of ASUU to declare an indefinite strike after the ongoing six-month strike. We consider the decision not only unpatriotic, unnecessary but wicked and definitely not in the interest of our nation or the tertiary education system in Nigeria.
“Such a decision was easy for ASUU because many of their leaders do not have their wards in public universities and still keep employment at various private universities around the country. As such, they are not affected by their attempt to collapse the sector for their selfish and inconsiderate gains.
“ASUU had succeeded, initially, to masquerade their strike as an action in the interest of the tertiary education system in Nigeria and in the interest of the teeming Nigerian students.
“But events of recent weeks have made it abundantly clear that ASUU has an ulterior motive, which is to collapse university education system in Nigeria and systematically promote private universities where many of them have their children, stakes and perhaps where they receive payment for the job of collapsing public universities in Nigeria.
The body, however, called on the federal government to probe the motive of ASUU on what it described as a mission to obliterate the public university system in the country.