Adefioye Iyunade
Nigerian students on Tuesday hit the street of Osogbo, Osun State capital, and Abeokuta in Ogun State to express their displeasure over the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and electricity tarrif. Their counterparts in Oyo State had earlier protested in Ibadan, the state capital.
Some of the protesters in Osun put on the orange #RevolutionNow Movement beret.
They took off from Freedom Park, Osogbo, and moved through MDS road to Olaiya Junction, chanting anti-government songs. On the other hand, the students in Ogun State stormed IBB Boulevard leading to Oke – Mosan Governor’s Office, chanting anti-increments slogans and describing the Federal Government’s action as inhuman.
The Ogun State students also expressed disappointment with Governor Dapo Abiodun for backing the Federal Government’s “anti-masses” policy and asked the governor to withdraw his statement supporting the increments.
The students protested under the aegis of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Joint Campus Committee (JCC) and National Association of State Students (NAOSS).
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Bearing placards, the Ogun State students stormed the secretariat of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) on Abiola Way. The inscriptions on some of their placards read: “NANS says no to hike in PMS pump price, hike in electricity tariff, hike in stamp duty”; “It is anti-masses and anti-poor”; “Nigerian students demand immediate reversal” and “We say no to anti-masses policies of the government.”
They lamented that the increment would further compound the woes of the masses and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately reverse it.
Chairman of Ogun NANS, Comrade Tomiwa Bamidele accused the government of insensitivity to the plights of Nigerians. He said, “We believe that our students are the end receivers of this anti-masses and anti-poor policies because an increment in the price of petroleum is an increment in the cost of transportation.
“And now that our students are going back to school, they will have issues. The salaries of their parents have not been increased and the government has not put in place some measures to reduce the suffering of our people.
“Having being greeted by COVID-19 at the beginning of this year, for our government to be coming again at this time of the day with this increment in price shows that our leaders are selfish and they don’t have the interest of the people at heart.”
Ogun chairman of NLC, Comrade Emmanuel Bankole called on every Nigerian to condemn and reject the increments.
He said, “All of us must rally together, poverty does not know religion, it does not recognise ethnicity or tribalism, poverty is poverty. It is left for you and me to see the times ahead and to know that it calls for everyone’s commitment.
“You (students) have spoken loud for the leaders of this country to know that you know what is happening and never again will you allow your future to be trampled on or for some people to be playing on your future.”
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