The University of Ilorin students on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest to express their disappointment over the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, vowing that they would not have anything to do with the 2023 general election if the government allowed the strike to linger.
Checkout Magazine had reported how ASUU, on Monday, extended its rollover strike by 12 weeks to provide enough time for the Federal Government to attend to its demands.
UNILORIN students said they planned to take their protest to major places like the Government House, state House of Assembly, Federal Secretariat, among other places, if the meeting between ASUU and the Federal Government did not resolve the lingering crisis this week.
Speaking with journalists, the Students Union President, Taofik Waliu, said the protest was aimed at creating awareness among stakeholders and members of the public.
Waliu said, “We want to graduate. The Federal Government should meet ASUU’s demands. We don’t plan to move around town today. We hope that soon, the ASUU strike will be a thing of the past whereby about-to-be graduates can graduate 300 Level students can move up, and so on.
“However, if nothing fruitful comes out after the Federal Government meets with ASUU this week, we will move en masse continuously with other students of 10 educational institutions in the state to block roads to various places in the state capital to register our displeasure over the lingering strike.
“This is just to send a message to the government that we are tired and they should meet ASUU’s demands.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Federal University of Technology, Minna chapter of ASUU, and member of the union’s National Executive Council, Dr. Gbolahan Bolarin, disclosed in an interview that ASUU may meet with the government side on May 16.
