The immediate past president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Olumide Apata on Monday got caught up in the protest embarked on by students over the closure of universities for about seven months.
Public universities have been shut in Nigeria since February due to the strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The government is yet to reach an agreement with the union.
Akpata threw his weight behind the students who barricaded the roads leading inward and outward of the Muritala International Airport in Lagos.
The lawyer, caught up in the demonstration, was left stranded and had to walk from the arrival point to the Hajj Camp, where he joined his driver, who was waiting for him.
He told PUNCH afterwards that he would have done the same if he were a student.
He said, “I was a student in this country. If I had sat at home for close to a year for whatever reason, I would be on the street.”
Other travellers moving in and out of the airport were seen walking as they carried their luggage, even as some street urchins did brisk businesses by assisting some of them.
