The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has explained that he stepped out of a Monday meeting with the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) because he was “disappointed with their comments”.
The Herald can report that the impromptu meeting held at the ministry’s conference room in Abuja after some students blockaded the ministry’s entrance to protest the one-month warning strike called by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, and Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, also attended the meeting.
While the meeting was going on, the NANS leadership accused government officials of sending their children abroad to study while leaving the educational sector back home in a mess.
The students also pointedly told the minister to quit if he could not find a lasting solution to the impasse between ASUU and the government.
Adamu, who expressed disappointment at the critical comments, stormed out of the meeting.
National President of NANS, Comrade Sunday Asefon, who led the students, said, “ASUU strike is killing education. This strike has been affecting our lives since 1999 and Nigerian students want to be part of the discussion between the Federal Government and ASUU to find a lasting solution to the matter.
“We want the Federal Government and ASUU to, as a matter of urgency, call off this strike while negotiation continues. We want to go back to the classroom. If not, this will be more than the #EndSARS protest.”