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UNILAG Students Meet NANS with Gates Locked
Protesters
organized by the Joint Campus Committee (JCC) of the National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) were barred from gaining
entrance into the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in the afternoon of
September 25, 2013, Wednesday.
The
protesters began their march about 12 p.m., starting out from the
bustling Ojuelegba overhead bridge in the Surulere area of Lagos, and
stopping just outside the main entrance gate at the University of Lagos.
According
to SaharaReporters the police did not disrupt the protest, but that the
protesters found the university’s gates shut against them. A source
within UNILAG disclosed that many of the university’s students did not
participate in the protest, and in fact instigated the closure of the
gate to prevent the protest from drawing a crowd within the institution.
In
another development, the new national President of NANS, Yinka Gbadebo,
had reportedly dissociated himself from any protest held in solidarity
with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), whose members have
been on a long strike. In earlier statements, Mr. Gbadebo took a stance
against both ASUU and the Federal Government. However, the NANS leader
has been particularly critical of ASUU, accusing the body of opposing
efforts to revive student union bodies in every institution. His
position has evolved to reveal increasing sympathy with the Federal
Government.
In
turn, the leader of the Lagos chapter of the JCC of NANS accused Mr.
Gbadebo and other NANS leaders of “misrepresenting the students at the
federal level,” adding, “we are not waiting on them for any movement.”
The
JCC protesters demonstrated outside the UNILAG gate for several hours.
Throughout the protest, the gate remained locked, with no one able to go
in or out of the gate until the protests ended in the late afternoon.
View more photos from the site of the protest below:
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