The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has warned that it will cripple critical infrastructure nationwide if the Federal Government fails to avert a looming strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Speaking in an interview without correspondents on Monday, NANS Assistant General Secretary, Emmanuel Adejuwon, expressed deep frustration over ASUU’s renewed strike threat, vowing to mobilise students for mass action.
“Let it be on record: if this strike is not averted, we will bring the country to a standstill until the future of Nigerian students is secured. The time for games is over. The Federal Government must act now. ASUU must act responsibly. And Nigerian students will not sit idle while our future is wasted,” Adejuwon said.
Adejuwon warned that NANS would not hesitate to block roads, airports, government offices, and other vital facilities if talks between ASUU and the Federal Government collapse.
He accused government officials of indifference, noting that strike actions only affect ordinary Nigerians.
“It is obvious that strike actions only inflict pain and suffering on the children of ordinary Nigerians, the masses who struggle day and night to keep their children in school. The politicians and government officials whose failures created this crisis are not affected; their children are comfortably schooling abroad or in expensive private universities. If the children of these politicians were in our public institutions, this issue would have been resolved immediately,” he added.
Adejuwon urged the government to meet ASUU’s demands without delay while also appealing to the lecturers’ union to reconsider using strikes as their sole bargaining tool.
Meanwhile, ASUU’s Zonal Coordinators across the country on Monday restated the union’s grievances, warning that a nationwide strike was imminent if the Yayale Ahmed report submitted to the Federal Government in February — was not implemented.
In Ibadan, Prof. Biodun Olaniran, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, said the report represented a hard-won consensus and that implementing it would restore industrial peace.
“The true test of government’s sincerity lies in how it handles the Yayale Ahmed report. Our members are frustrated with delay tactics and are no longer willing to be dragged along endlessly. Implementing this report is the surest way to restore confidence and industrial peace,” Olaniran said.
In Abuja, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Al-Amin Abdullahi, warned that Nigeria’s neglect of its universities amounted to “a purposeful mortgage of the nation’s future.”
In Calabar Zone, ASUU leaders outrightly rejected the Federal Government’s Tertiary Institution Staff Loan Scheme, describing it as “a poison chalice.” Dr. Ikechukwu Igwenyi of Ebonyi State University said the policy was a mockery of university staff struggling with outdated salaries and unpaid deductions.
Both ASUU and NANS have marked August 28, 2025, as a decisive date for the government to act.
For students, Adejuwon made NANS’ position clear:
“The time for games is over. The Federal Government must act now. ASUU must act responsibly. And Nigerian students will not sit idle while our future is wasted.”
