The National Association of Nigeria Students (Joint Campus Council), Ondo axis has written to the Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, over the untold hardship faced by students in the state.
The NANS JCC (Ondo) said students were being painfully marginalised, bitterly ignored and sidelined from governance and the dividends of good governance which has in turn invited untold hardship upon the students and severed the relationship between the students and the state government.
In a statement dated Monday, December 6, 2022, addressed to the governor and signed by the chairman, Omotoso Surprise Oluwaferanmi, and co-signed by General secretary, Akinola Elijah Temitope; Public Relations Officer, Ogunjimi Tolulope James and other school chapter presidents, titled, ‘Open Letter To Governor Rotimi Akeredolu,’ it partly read, “The need for this open letter was borne out of the plight and sufferings of Nigerian students in Ondo State. Nigerian students in Ondo State have been painfully marginalised, bitterly ignored and sidelined from governance and the dividends of good governance which has in turn invited untold hardship upon the students.
“The level of neglect the entire students community has received from the Akeredolu-led government is sardonic, shambolic and painful because we believe that Nigerian students deserve no such punishment from the present-day government of Ondo State.
“The current administration of Gov. Rotimi Odunayo Akeredolu has created a huge gap between the students and the government due to total neglect of the students’ constituency.
“The inability of Ondo State Government to provide infrastructural development in the State tertiary institutions has totally severed the relationship between the students and the Governor, H.E Akeredolu Odunayo Rotimi. The students fear the Governor might have little passion for the future of the State and the country at large.
“Over the years, the education budget of the state is at an all-time low as a result of lack of funding for the education sector. The level of insecurity of lives and properties of the students around the campus and its environs has been disheartening and at a high level. Nigerian students now study in fear amidst the rushed, packed education calendar due to the just suspended 8-month industrial strike of ASUU.
“Ever since assumption into office, the government of the day has not deemed it fit to project quality tertiary education as the education budget has been lowered to an all-time minimum. This has led to the gradual decay of tertiary education in Ondo.
“The only tertiary institution in the southern part of the State has been degraded to ruins and rot. Whilst Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, a State-owned institution has been dealing with issues ranging from the congestion of lecture rooms, no lecture theatre, no residential hostel, no sports facility, no electricity, the poor state of electricity amongst other issues which has engulfed the development of the institution,” the statement added.
Addressing the benefits the student populace enjoyed in the past, the union leaders said their erstwhile leaders were fully employed by the government of the day and this help them solidify their interest in getting better in societal politics.
The student leaders also mull the government’s inability to provide ‘Aluta Shuttles’ for their easy mobility, which they said has hindered prompt response to students’ distress calls both in towns and campuses by the leadership of the Unions.
“After exhausting the first C (consultation) in the Aluta struggle which has now failed, we are currently on the second C (consolidation) and would not hesitate to execute the last C (confrontation) if there are no productive responses and our demands met which is the essence of this open letter to call the attention of the Governor to many irregularities going on and seek for a remedy,” they maintained.
They further appeal to Akeredolu to come to the aid of Nigerian students and hear their cries and agonies.
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