Students from the University of Benin, the Edo State capital on Wednesday defied the early morning rain to embark on a protest against the continued strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The students, who took their protest to the King Square area of the city, demanded an end to the strike. They said they are tired of staying at home, cut off from their academic pursuits.
While they appealed to the relevant authorities to look into the issues that led to the strike for a resolution to be reached, the students rued watching their dream of graduating suffer stagnation.
The university teachers are pressing home their demands which include funding for the revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), and payment of promotion arrears.
They had first embarked on a four-week strike before extending it for another eight weeks to enable the Federal Government to address issues in concrete terms.
ASUU had also accused the government of poor commitment to the payment of earned academic allowance; the continued use of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and refusal to adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) among others.
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