*By David Uka, Abakaliki*
Students in Federal and State universities in the five States of the South East geopolitical zone went on protest in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently comply with the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU or resign ahead of the 2019 general election.
The Director of External Affairs, NANS South East zone B, Comrade Onwe Joshua made this known during in a peaceful protest staged in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi state.
The protest which witnessed a large crowd of students had the presence of over 30 policemen that guided them to avert break down of law and order.
The students carried placards with various inscriptions which read “We rebuke FG cold approval to ASUU demands, “Reduce political office holders salaries and improve that of the civil and public servants, FG Enough is Enough, stop politicizing our educational sector” etc.
Mr. Joshua said “The level of our educational system is going into oblivion and we can’t fold our hands and watch the system reigned. This is why the leadership of NANS declared 17 of November as a day of mourning, and thats why we made today as a day to rally in support of the campaign to save the educational system in Nigeria.
“The cold nature of the Federal Government to respond to the demand of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU is unbecoming. And we the Nigerian students are no longer happy. From local government to the state level, educational system has fallen apart”he said
Earlier in a remark, the Chairman of the Joint Students Union Government Ebonyi State, Comrade Nwiboko Peter tasked President Buhari to increase the budget for education.
“We demand that Federal Government should budget 27 percent for the educational system, instead of 7 percent approved by President Buhari in the 2018 budget. We demand that there should be restructuring and resuscitation of our educational system to avoid this collapse.
“You can see that Nigeria is not working again and if President Buhari refuse to change, then we can change him. We have the weapon of mass destruction, that we are going to exercise come February 2019 to make sure that we remove this evil leaders.
“Our leaders are the problem that we have in this country. Our leaders should consider that we are not cowards or animals. We are human beings and they should consider our plight All the federal universities in Ebonyi are in shambles and not to talk of the states universities” he said
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