Hundreds of students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), yesterday blocked the busy Benin–Lagos Highway in a solidarity march with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), calling on the federal government to meet the demands of the lecturers and make learning more convenient for them.

The President, Students Union Government (SUG), Foster Amadin, said the students would continue the protest in support of the lecturers.

Amadin said:

This is a warning protest to air our grievances and to let the government know that we are watching, and ASUU should know we are watching and if proper measures are not taken to check this strike, the effect will not be nice. We are ready to stay here except the federal government listens to our lecturers.

Corroborating Amadin’s views, the Speaker of the SUG, UNIBEN, Dignity Amenaghawon said:

The essence of the protest is because of the ASUU strike.

We are in the streets clamouring for the federal government to answer ASUU’s demands and put an end to these strikes by responding to their demands.

This is not the first time ASUU is going on strike, this issue with the federal government has been on ground since 2009, they had an agreement since 2009 that the federal government is yet to fulfill. The students are at the receiving end because from time to time, when they go on strike, students are affected. We have a situation where students enter the school for a course of four years and they will be in campus for six to seven years. In other countries, things are not like this. So government should answer ASUU’s demands and are in solidarity with ASUU.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.