The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has threatened to shut down the nation if the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike continues, according to the president of ATBU's Students Union Government (SUG).
Comrade Usman Abubakar, president of the ATBU SUG, gave a speech at a news conference held by the NANS NorthEast zone on Friday in Bauchi.
He bemoaned the fact that the strike will prevent students who are almost 30 from enrolling in NYSC because the legislation prohibits graduates older than 30 from taking part in the program.
“The federal government and ASUU are clearly not thinking about how this strike will have direct impact of the lives of students. Most people whose ages is close to 30 are at the risk of not going for NYSC.
“Even those who might scale through to NYSC will also be denied job opportunities because by the time they graduate, they will be older than the 26 or 27 years that banks and other firms require for graduate employment.
“The annoying thing is that most of the people (FG and ASUU) fighting do not have their children in our schools, federal government and ASUU must find a way to end this strike has lasted for seven months, else, we will shut down this country,” he said.
Earlier, the Coordinator of NANS ZONE-E, Alhassan Adam, had appealed to ASUU to obey the court order and return to class so that students can pursue their dreams.