'Govt Deliberately Shut Down Campuses To Avoid Students Protests' -As ASUU Strike Enters Day 140

A cross section of Nigerians are suspecting that the Buhari government may be acting out a deliberate script by keeping students off all campuses across the country for months. A top security source said the government has intentionally allowed lecturer and staff unions to go ahead with their strike actions for months now, thereby keeping gates of the institutions under locks. "The undercurrent aim, according to him, is to shut out any avenue through which youth protests can spark off. The entire polity in the country is so heated up that the government would rather the students stay at home rather than having pockets of protests by them over the ongoing social, economic and security crises in the country", our source who is an international security expert, who revealed that the hide and seek game being played by the FG is to buy time as election dates approaches, said.

Labour actions by these unions have led to the prolonged shutdown of academic activities in the nation’s tertiary institutions. The strike declared by the ASUU entered its 140th day today, while the strike declared by the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and other Allied Institutions, which began on March 25, 2022 also entered the 68th day today. The National Executive Council of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics just called off a two-week warning strike days back, which they are about to resume anytime from now, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union just commenced a two-month strike.

Government’s failure to meet ASUU’s demands, implement the agreement it had with the union and satisfactorily resolve the issues, has kept poor Nigerian children at home, with only the children of the country’s politicians and privileged attending private schools not affected. For months, the government has continued to allow negotiations to linger with no concrete end in sight. And these strike actions that have grounded tertiary education for almost a year.