NANS lamented that the waiver would serve as compensation for the eight months they spent outside classrooms waiting for the face-off between the lecturers and Federal Government to end.

The students claimed that the time wasted on the face-off could have afforded them the opportunity to complete their programmes in the varsities rather than staying at home.

The President, NANS, Usman Barambu, who disclosed the request, added that they would be approaching the central government to ask that N20,000 stipends should also be given to the students to cushion the effect of the strike on education.

Barambu announced the request on Saturday while responding to questions with two other guests on a popular television programme segment set aside to discuss challenges in tertiary institutions across the country.

The president lamented that he and other colleagues had calculated their time in school but the strike has changed their plans and many would have to start adjusting it which may be difficult for them to do.

He added that the students who were not allowed to be part of the agreements initially reached between the government and ASUU were made to suffer during the face-off.

Barambu stressed that if the students were allowed to participate, they would have been well informed and planned better for themselves rather than been caught unaware.

The president disclosed that even when they tried to get involved, the ASUU leadership rejected the move and they were forced out inspite of the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, approving their presence.

“But the ASUU president rejected the move and that was why we were shut out and it affected our involvement and demonstration on the issues affecting the tertiary institutions across the country”.

He, meanwhile, urged the leadership of ASUU in all varsities to monitor disbursements and completion of projects approved by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), to ensure judicious use of funds and completion of projects in their schools.

“I want to urge the ASUU leadership to checkmate the Vice Chancellors to know how funds were spent on contracts and projects completed in their schools.

“We discovered that some of the projects were not done as stipulated in the contract that was approved by the government. The TETfund has the money but they do not have any supervision and all these contributed to the challenges facing the schools”, he added.

The post Breaking: FG Must Compensate ASUU Strike With Free Tuition -NANS appeared first on Daily Dates Nigeria.

Daily Dates Nigeria recalls that the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) had planned nationwide Democracy Day protest on June 12.

The National public relations officer of NANS, Comr. Ezenagu Victor while addressing Journalists in a press conference to mark Nigeria’s Democracy Day in Enugu, South-East, Nigeria, said the student body suspended the protest immediately it discovered that some politicians with different agendas had perfected plans to hijack the protest to cause mayhem in the country.

Victor explained that NANS seriously believed in the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) which had helped to reduce the frequency of students nationwide protests.

He also noted that the suspension of the protest is necessary to avoid a clash of interest and clash with security agencies that are on red alert to protect the nation’s infrastructures from security breaches on the proposed date as a result of many other protests slated for the same date.

He said, “All along, we chose June 12th as a day all Nigerian students would come out to protest against the insecurity in the country, especially the serial abductions of students. Very close to the planned date, some politicians with different agendas fixed their protest on the same day and demanding that “President Buhari must go”. Because that was not our plan, we decided to suspend the protest.

“Talking about the allegation of taking bribe from the federal government to suspend the planned protest, If we were bribed to stop the protest, we wouldn’t have been cruder in addressing this administration as a failed one.

“Obviously, Nigerians and Nigerian students are livid and irate because our joy has been turned to sorrows and our hearts broken by the pain and brutality that our fellow students have suffered in recent times ranging from the abduction of students of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, #ABU 7, to the abduction of over 20 students of Greenfield University, down to Niger State and several other states. So many students have also lost their lives as a result of the clashes between the security agents and unknown gun men which have led to Nigerian students living in perpetual fear.

“Painfully, we live in a nation where students numbering over 200 can be easily kidnapped and taken out of their schools/town without any form of resistance from the security agencies, this calls for serious concern. We have waited so long for the security around schools to be greatly improved to ensure our students are secured but we have seen little or no improvement.

“These incessant cases of banditry, herdsmen attacks, operations of the unknown gunmen and kidnapping of our students call for a radical and urgent move by the government to salvage the situation. We have been daunted by the unending news of killings across the length and breadth of the nation such that death appears normal in our society today. These developments are not only unacceptable; they portend great dangers to the very essence of our national unity, progress and development”.

He said it was unacceptable for the nation to be celebrating democracy “when the masses cannot enjoy the dividends of democracy.

He also called on the governments at all levels to rise up to the occasion and secure the lives and property of Nigerians which is their first and most important constitutional duty.

The post NANS Reveals Why Planned Protest Was Suspended appeared first on Daily Dates Nigeria.