The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) is set to take its agitation directly to campuses nationwide, with National President Comrade Akinteye Babatunde Afeez announcing a six-zone tour and mass mobilization against the prolonged ASUU strike.
In a statement issued on Friday after returning from a two-day engagement with NANS Ghana and the NANS Leadership Boot Camp in Ghana, Akinteye said the student body would begin relocating to campuses across the country next week to engage students and university managements on issues affecting academic welfare.
“Beginning next week, we will be relocating to your campuses across the country to engage with students, meet with university managements, and address issues affecting your academic welfare,” he stated.
According to the NANS president, the nationwide engagement will also include an inspection tour of federal roads currently under construction and those completed by the Federal Ministry of Works. The ministry is led by Engr. Dave Umahi, who Akinteye noted is also NANS’ Patron
The tour, he said, is aimed at assessing the progress of the road projects and understanding their impact on students and host communities.
The zonal sequence will begin in the Northwest, followed by the Northeast, North Central, Southeast, South-South, and Southwest.
Akinteye directed SUG Presidents with peculiar institutional issues to forward them to the NANS General Secretary to ensure proper documentation and targeted engagement with relevant authorities.
Call for ‘Mother of All Protests’ Over ASUU Strike
The most significant directive in the statement was the clearance given to NANS JCCs in states currently affected by the ASUU strike to begin mobilization.
He gave “final clearance to NANS JCC Ondo, NANS JCC Niger, NANS JCC Nasarawa, and other JCCs in states where ASUU is currently on strike to commence massive mobilization for a mother of all protests in their respective states.”
Describing the continuous strike as “a shame” and “no longer acceptable,” Akinteye said Nigerian students “have suffered enough” and cannot continue to watch academic calendars disrupted “while our future remains uncertain.”
“We demand urgent action. We demand a lasting solution. We demand that students’ time and future be respected,” he declared, ending the statement with the students’ rallying cry: “Aluta Continua!”
The planned protests and campus visits signal an escalation in NANS’ response to disruptions in the nation’s public university system, as students push for government and ASUU to reach a lasting resolution.
