Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The newly elected National President of the National Association of University Students (NAUS), Ijegalu Felix has called on the Inspection General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to immediately withdraw police personnel attached to VIPs across the country, with a view to redeploying them to various institutions of learning to protect the lives of students.
Felix stated this in his maiden press conference held on Sunday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat, Iwe Irohin, Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital.
He lamented the incessant attacks on University campuses across the country by bandits, saying that students now live in constant fear of being kidnapped or worst still, killed in a bid to be educated.
“it is also imperative for us to register our displeasure at the disturbing and incessant attacks on students of tertiary institutions in their various campuses across the nation by bandits, kidnappers and marauding criminal herdsmen.
“It is most worrisome and unfortunate that in Nigeria today, hardly will a day go by without the news of an attack on our institutions of learning, with students, lecturers and other staff members being kidnapped or killed by suspected bandits or criminal herdsmen.
“This has not only put the lives of our students in danger, but it is also destroying our already crisis ridden educational sector.
“We hereby call on the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led Federal government to find lasting solutions to the insecurity challenges in the country otherwise we maybe forced to take laws into our hands.
“We also called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, to immediately withdraw police personnel attached to VIPs across the country, with a view to redeploying them to our various institutions of learning to protect the lives of our students. Or what use are the policemen to the VIPs if the lives of the students who are the future leaders of this country continue to be in danger”, Felix stated.
He also called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency address the demands of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to avert another imminent strike.
“It is appalling and most embarrassing that, lecturers have to go on strike for them to be taken serious by the Federal government. Most disappointing is that, after three months of suspending a nine-month old strike, the government has failed to some fulfil its promises made to the union.
“This government has once again shown its ineptitude and lack of sympathy to the plights of Nigerian students who have become puns in the game of power between the government and ASUU”, he lamented
He therefore urged the federal government to show commitment to reviving the education sector by addressing some, if not all of the issues raised by ASUU.