We’re tired of staying at home, Nigerian students urge FG to reopen schools

By Sodiq Adelakun

As the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, says the decision to extend the resumption time for schools in Nigeria depends on the decision of the Education ministry, students have appealed to the Nigerian government not to extend their resumption time again. The students say they are tired of staying at home.

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The Presidential Task Force National Coordinator on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu on Tuesday, had said  that schools in the country would resume on January 18 except the Ministry of Education announced further directive.

Meanwhile,  the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on Monday, said the Federal Government would review the January 18 earlier date fixed for resumption of schools across Nigeria.

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The minister, who spoke at a PTF briefing in Abuja, attributed the decision to the second wave of COVID-19 currently ravaging the country, thus sparking fears that schools might not open for classes on January 18.

Similarly, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have kicked against the reopening of universities, stating that it would be unsafe to do so as there are no provisions in public universities to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

Speaking to Franktalknow on Wednesday, some students of higher institutions in Nigeria,  appealed to the Federal Government to make  the January 18  resumption date sacrosanct.

The students said they were tired of staying at home and would like to go back to school.

A student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Kunle Akanni,  lamented that extending the resumption date would  have negative  effects on the teeming Nigerian students, who are eager to go back to school.

He said, ” We have spent almost over a year at home. We don’t need any further postponement of academic activities. Why the postponement again. We want to go back to school. We have already lost one academic year to COVID-19 and ASUU strike.”

Another student, Adedeji Rasheedat, said they have been home for almost one year partly because of COVID-19 and ASUU strike. “Some of us are fast forgetting what schools look like. We want to go back to school, we are tired of staying at home.

“Instead of keeping us at home, the federal government   should put the necessary measures in place to protect students.”

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Another student, simply identified as Amos, said government should consider the fate of students who had already lost one year before extending resumption time.

According to him,  new students cannot be admitted because of the prolonged stay of  the old students at home. “I call on PTF and other stakeholders to consider the fate of hundreds of thousands of students and that of new entrants,” he said.

Earlier today, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof Lilian Salami, had in a television programme said,  “I have heard some students say, look, if you don’t open, we will beat up the Vice-Chancellors and start beating up the lecturers. Maybe other Vice-Chancellors can take up the beatings but I can assure you that Professor Salami is too fragile to be beaten.”

Students of public universities have been at home since March 2020 when the Academic Staff Union of Universities began a nine-month-long strike over certain demands. The union, however, conditionally suspended the industrial action on December 24, 2020, after a lot of foot-dragging by lecturers and the Federal Government.