Students of tertiary institutions have added their voices to the call on the Federal Government to urgently take steps toward fixing the roads in the South-South and South-East zones in order to reduce the frequency of road crashes in the areas.
The students under the aegis of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), Zone B (South-South and South-East), decried the deplorable state of federal roads in the two zones.
NANS’ position was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the Zone B convention which was held in Kwale, Delta State.
Besides fixing the deplorable roads, NANS urged the Federal Government to expedite action on the Eastern and Coastal Railway corridor, running from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri and Calabar to Lagos respectively.
They charged the government to “give our region a standard corridor as obtainable in other parts of the country where railway project has been embarked upon.”
The students’ body called on both state and Federal Governments to prioritise funding of the educational sector, insisting that the UNESCO recommendation of 26% allocation to education by all developing nations must be adhered to.
NANS however commended the Federal Government on the increment of salary for men of Nigeria Police Force and charged the officers to use the increase as a motivating factor in the discharge of their duties professionally and diligently.
On the impending strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the students enjoined the ‘Federal Government and the leadership of ASUU to quickly find a common ground and resolve all lingering issues to avoid further delay of academic activities in post-COVID-19 lockdown.’
The communiqué was signed by Tari Ekadi, convention chairman; Egbe Collins, convention clerk; Akaowo Clifford, communiqué drafting committee chairman; and Ugochukwu Anichukwu, communique drafting committee secretary.
Credit: Daily Sun