The national leadership of the Federation of Oyo State Students’ Union has put off its initial plan to disrupt administrative and commercial activities in Oyo State for 10 working days owing to the brinkmanship style of running the state’s education sector.
The student body was orchestrating strategies at remonstrating against the Ajimobi-led APC government in Oyo State owing to poor funding of the state’s education sector and nonpayment of bursaries to its members who are indigenes of the state.
The protest, which was billed to commence today, September 3rd, was shelved owing to the quick intervention of the state’s Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Adeniyi Olowofela; Governor Ajimobi’s Chief of Staff, Dr. Gbade Ojo; and the Special Assistant on Student Affairs to the state governor, Mrs Fatima Hassan-Adeleke.
The suspension of the demonstration was backed by a statement jointly signed by FOSSU national president and the national senate president of the union, Comr. Azeez Sharafudeen Akano and Comr. Oke Wasiu, respectively.
The statement reads in part: “…In as much there has been the [sic] sudden interventions and assurances from the government and the subsequent order of the Chief of Staff to the Governor to submit data of the students [sic] beneficiaries of the said bursary, we therefore put on hold our proposed protest for the time being.
“While calling on our fellow students to remain calm in their various campuses for further directives from FOSSU NATIONAL aftermath [sic] the submission of the data to the government, we also call for our [sic] prayers during the short pause [sic] from all FOSSUITES on this [sic] bursary struggles.”
According to reports, the national leadership of FOSSU has now submitted the data of its members to the Oyo State government, through the Chief of Staff to the governor, Dr. Gbade Ojo, for consideration in order to fast-track and speed up the processing of the bursary for eligible Nigerian students who are indigenously from the state.
