The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has warned that the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) comes with attendant unprecedented and untold challenges and hardship to both the students and parents.
It therefore called on the federal government to urgently address the lingering issues that led to the strike.
NANS also questioned the relevance of the over N1billion expended to develop the recently launched National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
It said it did not have provisions for addressing the critical challenges of Nigerian universities and its students.
The position of NANS is contained in a statement signed by its president, Comrade Chinonso Obasi.
Said Obasi: “NANS is of the considered opinion that human capital development is an integral component of the nations economic development and growth and so excluding appropriate considerations for the sustainable development of the nations institutions in a strategic roadmap for building a prosperous future for the country essentially to enhance the prospects of learning and development of young people and to harness the resources for national development as critical assets in a strategic national development plan is only not an absurdity but an aberration that is grossly not acceptable.”
Read also: Jong Un’s decision not to fire missiles was wise –Trump
He added that the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan was purported to contain a holistic solution to the numerous challenges bedeviling the nation and designed to engender not only the recovery of the nations ailing economy but one that would move the country forward towards building a sustainable and prosperous future for the country with the youth at the center.
He emphasized that social inclusion and active participation of young people on issues that concerns them was a global trend and that the Nigerian students and youth could not continue to sit back and fold their arms while things went wrong.
The need for the Nigerian students and youth to know about the contents of the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and how it directly impacts on their lives now and in the future and understand how they could actively participate in the implementation of the plan could not be overemphasized.
He added: “As critical stakeholders in the Nigerian Project, the leadership of NANS is mobilizing the Nigerian Students nationwide to demand explanations from the Federal Government as to why a whopping sum of over N1billion would be expended on document that is devoid of critical inclusions and provisions to address the challenges of the Nigerian Students and Youth as well as practical strategies to put an end to the germane and perennial issues that translate to the< incessant distortion of smooth learning the nations ivory towers.”
