ASUU Strike: Students Have Taken It Too Far — Chief Okpoko

Chief Thompson Joseph Okpoko, SAN, a prominent legal practitioner has said Nigerian students have taken the protest against the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Strike to the extreme.

Speaking to Daily Post in his chamber in Warri, Delta State, on Thursday, the SAN urged the union to step in by negotiating with the federal government.

"If they negotiate, they reach an agreement, let them put it in writing with the federal government in a memo and if the government does not comply with what they want, then, they should consult their lawyer to see what they can do using the law against the government because the government is bound to obey the law,” he said.

Okpoko stressed that if members of ASUU do not end their strike, the Nigerian University system would crash.

Chief Thompson Joseph Okpoko

He added that many students would become dropouts and the country would breed poverty if the strike persists.

Okpoki concluded that “If ASUU insists on striking for eternity, students will not go to school. Then, you have dropouts. The female will become pregnant, premature mothers.

"The result is that you are breeding poverty upon poverty, and then of course, the insecurity we are talking about will multiply.

“We have cases of students who are on strike now being armed robbers, being kidnappers and so on. And of course, you saw the demonstrations in Lagos that they’re blocking the road.

"What has the road user got to do with the grievance of ASUU members?

"They’re transferring their aggression against the government to the ordinary man and who is this ordinary man?

"Their fathers and especially those who are working to pay their school fees. So, they have extended it too much”.

The lawyer encouraged Nigerian students to direct their protests at the government, advising them to plead with their lecturers to consider the effect of the strike on their education,

He further urged the students to persuade their parents to pressurise the politicians to do the needful.

Okpoko stated that the ASUU should resolve the issue with the same level of maturity as the old teachers and lecturers did.

The SAN faulted the government for failing to make a sufficient budgetary allocation to the education ministry of the nation.

Students under the auspices of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) took over Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos this week in resumed protests against the ASUU strike, stopping travellers from embarking on their journeys and getting to their destinations in time.