The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has kicked against the court order for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its seven-month-long strike.
NANS spokesman Giwa Temitope said in a statement on Wednesday that the judgement betrays equity.
The statement followed the ruling of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria earlier in the day. The court ordered ASUU to call off its nationwide strike.
Justice Polycarp Hamman said he was invoking Section 18 of Trade Dispute Act, which allows the court to order an end to strike when national interest is at stake.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14. Some of the lecturers’ demands include improved funding for universities, and a review of salaries.
Reacting to the ruling, the students’ body explained that rather than direct ASUU to return to classroom, the court should have ordered the Federal Government to sort the striking lecturers.
According to the students union, the fact that they had to drag ASUU to court is a signal that this government cannot handle crisis.
The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to a news of a court judgment mandating the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call of its 7 month strike. As an association, we feel disturbed to read the news of the judgment because we believe that it betrays equity.
“Ordinarily, the Federal Government is not meant to have dragged ASUU to court. But, the fact that they had to drag ASUU to court is a signal that this government cannot handle crisis. And, we want to state categorically that the court cannot force members of ASUU back to lecture theatres.
“And, as it stands today, with that court judgment, we maintain that the court has not resolved the problem and we reject the judgment in strong terms. The court could have said that the Federal Government should go and pay rather than say that lecturers who are on strike should go back to classrooms. We were expecting the court to have understood that lecturers are on contract of personal service hence, they cannot be compelled to render a service they don’t want to render.
“The only remedy to this strike action is for the Federal Government to accede to the demands of ASUU which the government willingly entered into with them and properly fund education.”
