The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been ordered by the National Industrial Court to end its current strike.
The strike has been in effect for seven months.
In order to grant the Federal Government’s request for an order of injunction against the teachers, the Court cited section 18 of the Trade Dispute Act and the national interest of the Nigerian students.
Justice Polycap Hamman issued the order suspending the strike, on Wednesday, September 21, while making a decision on a federal government application seeking that university professors be forced to return to work until the fulfillment of their demands for better working conditions.
This order comes a few hours after the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) threatened not to allow any political campaign held across the country till students of public universities return to classrooms.
In terms of students’ access to education, NANS claimed that the strike has jeopardised their fundamental human rights.
Comrade Olusesi Tolulope Samson, the chairman of the Lagos NANS, revealed this on the Arise TV morning programme on Tuesday, September 20, when asked about the students’ protest at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Monday.
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He claimed that the strike had a negative impact on the members’ future, noting that some male students had gone on to become mechanics, some had taken courses in printing, and some female students had become pregnant.
Samson said;
The Federal Government has jeopardised and bastardised the fundamental human right of the Nigerian students. Some came to the protest yesterday with their ID cards, learning mechanics now. Some are learning printing works, while some female students are pregnant.
He stated that the demonstration held at the airport served as a warning to the foreign community that something is wrong with Nigeria’s educational system.
The student representative stated that the students’ demand was for the universities to be reopened and that they were keeping their fingers crossed for the outcome of a planned meeting between Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the ASUU leadership.
