Headlines
Students Protest ASUU Strike, Block Airport Road, Motorists, Commuters Stranded
Many commuters, including those travelling abroad through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, were on Monday morning stranded as students, in their tens, blocked the main road linking the airport to Ikeja and Apapa-Osodi areas of the city.
On guard at the scene of the protest are also police officers who wielded batons but maintained some distance from the protesters as they tried to ensure that the situation did not degenerate.
The protesters, under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have vowed to remain on the road until the Nigerian government and the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) reach a middle ground and academic activities resume on their campuses.
It is already more than seven months that ASUU commenced its strike, which it has declared indefinite following the failure of the two parties to reach a compromise on the union’s demands.
ASUU has demanded the replacement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as salary payment platform with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) which its members developed.
ASUU said rather than ensuring accountability, IPPIS has enabled fraud in the system and that it failed to accommodate the peculiarities of the university system.
The union is also requesting the release of revitilisation fund for the universities as contained in the earlier agreements signed with the government, and the release of its members-earned academic allowance, among others.
Protest
The protesters defied the early morning rain in Lagos on Monday and assembled on the main road leading to the airport and just after the toll gates.
They used their vehicles to barricade the road obstructing those driving towards the airport.
Many workers and travellers were forced to trek long distances to access the airport as the protesters continued to sing and dance in circles while officers of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Nigerian Police in the state were seen seen on standby in one of the videos of the protest posted on Twitter.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as; “No Work, No Pay is a Fascist Talk. Pay Our Lecturers” and “No Education, No Movement”.
Some members of NANS in the South-west region had on Thursday staged a similar protest on the Gbongan-Ibadan highway in Osun State, causing gridlock.
Similar protests had also held across major parts of the country some months ago until the students were seemingly fagged out and awaited the outcome of the negotiations between the striking unions and the government.
At the time, all the university based workers unions including the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Other Allied Institutions (NASU), Senior Staff Associatuion of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) had also declared strike.
However, in August, while other unions suspended their more than five-month-old strikes, giving the government ultimatums to accede to their requests, ASUU opted to continue the industrial action and declared it indefinite, citing government’s decision to jettison its earlier negotiated agreements through its appointed committees.
Following the stalemate and the emergence of a new NANS leadership with Usman Barambu from the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, as the president, the union has renewed its threat to ground major activities nationwide.
NANS said part of its strategies is to obstruct movements across major airports “so that the members of the elite and the ruling class can be reminded of the plight of the university students.”
Premium Times
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
