An idle hand is always the devil’s workshop, people often say. This is the cry of all Nigerian students who have stayed over three months at home after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on strike since November. They want to go back to school. They are tired of idleness.
One of the leaders of National Association of Nigerian Students, Bestman Okereafor said their priority at the moment is not politics or the crisis that has rocked the Nigerian Judiciary recently. Their concern according to the National Public Relations Officer of NANS, Okereafor of the University of Ibadan, is for all Nigerian parents to collectively and individually appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to speed up negotiation with ASUU.
“We are tired of staying idle at home for three-months and all we are saying is we want to go back to the classrooms,” Okereafor, the PRO said.
Okereafor, spoke to journalists on Wednesday while reacting to a purported protest of Onnoghen’s suspension by some acclaimed students in Nasarrawa State.
“ NANS has never organised (nor having the intention of organising) any protest against the suspension of CJN,” he said. “Any group which claimed to be students and had done so, did that on their own and for personal gains.
“As bonafide Nigerian students in tertiary institutions and leaders, NANS has not only distanced itself from the disgraceful protest calling for the reinstatement of Onnoghen, but also condemned such call in its entirety.
“Though while we keep clamouring for the respect of the rule of law both in the public and private settings of our national life, the priority on NANs table at this moment remains a call to the Federal Government to yield to the terms put before it by ASUU and ASUP so that we go back to class.”
