Due to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has announced that it will stop operations at domestic and international airports nationwide starting on Monday, September 18.
It said that the reason for its decision to halt airport operations was the effectiveness of its road demonstration, which saw multiple motorways stopped.
The NANS leadership said in a speech delivered in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, that the airport closures were intended to force the wealthy to shoulder some of the burdens caused by the students’ protracted strike.
Comrade Ojo Raymond Olumide, chairman of the NANS National Task Force on “End ASUU Strike Now,” claimed that students were sick of begging with both parties to end the strike.
Olumide warned ASUU not to end the strike after receiving a pay raise, but to continue pressing for the other demands that sparked the strike instead.
According to him: “We shall begin another round of protest next week by storming the airspaces on Monday, 19th September 2022 to #OccupyTheAirports. We want to let the world know about the pains and anguish students are going through.
“Nigerian students whose parents create the commonwealth cannot continue to be suffering at home alongside our lecturers while the few who gain from our sweats and blood have their kids abroad.
“We call on students to rise and join us as we take our destinies into our hands. Our demands remain consistently clear and simple. We call on ASUU leadership for a meeting as soon as possible to discuss solidarity actions and plan for the next phase of the struggles.”
He said that because they were not subject to security agencies, the student body did not need to alert the police about the planned action to shut down airports.
“Grounding the airport is for us to get solidarity and we will keep on grounding the local and international airports and they know the effect of us grounding the airport.
“The only thing we request for them is to open our campuses back. We Call on the Buhari government to pay all outstanding arrears and salaries of the lecturers. The policy of “No Work No Pay” is a fascist one. It is, therefore condemnable and nonacceptable to all the millions of students in Nigeria.
“We will, by this statement, not beg again. We shall be mobilizing all students to shut down the country. No Education! No Movement,” he said.
