Group mulls mass protest over ASUU strike 

The students wing of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG-SW) has threatened to mobilise mass protests against the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

CNG-SW said it would mobilise students and parents to massive zonal protests that would entail shutting down of activities in all the 19 northern states and House of Assemblies, all political party offices and major highways, airways and railways if the federal government fails to resolve the impasse with ASUU.

CNG-SW made the threat in a communiqué issued at the end of a combined meeting of the National Executive Council members, attended by coordinators of the 19 northern states and Abuja in Kano, weekend.

In the communiqué, signed by CNG-SW’s national coordinator, Jamilu Charanchi, and signed by him during a press conference in Kano Friday, the association said it noted that the protracted closure of Nigerian universities and colleges of education affected only the children of the poor.

CNG-SW said the strike, “had exposed the children of the poor to violence and exploitation with early marriages, more idle minds recruited into militias, sexual exploitation of girls and young women, teenage pregnancies, and child labour, already becoming common.

“We note also that both government and the unions are so unconcerned because the disadvantages of the closure are disproportionate for under-privileged students who have fewer or zero educational opportunities beyond Nigeria as their parents are unable to redirect them to foreign-based schools that remain open.

“They appear not to bother because apparently, the impact is particularly severe for the most vulnerable and marginalised boys and girls and their families with the resulting disruptions exacerbating already existing disparities within the education system, and in other aspects of their lives,” the group noted.