LAGOS AFRICA – There is trouble brewing in Lagos and the world is making a point to see what it is. The Students of Lagos who under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), yesterday blocked all the roads leading to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos State.
For those who are wondering why these students are doing this, it is the continuation of their protest against the seven-month-old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). These students who have now caused a massive lockdown on the roads are leaving many travellers stranded with no way out of Lagos.
The national media and news have been all over this lockdown by the students keeping people updated as to what is happening. They found out that operatives from the Lagos State Police Command, the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), the Lagos Airport Police Command, and other security agencies were drafted to the scene of the protest to avert likely breakdown of law and order.
Even with this kind of heavy security of all the forces combined the students still stood their ground with absolutely no care in the world or what would happen if the situation were to get out of hand. The protestors occupied the Ajao Estate/Oshodi corridor into the airport with their vehicles, disrupting vehicular and human movements for other people to pass by.
The protesting students carried placards bearing different inscriptions, such as: “#EndASUUStrikeNow”; “If you have money for election form, you can fund education”; “Education is a right. Open our schools now”; “No school, no election campaigns”; “We can’t suffer here while the rich send their kids abroad to study and rule us”.
They also chanted solidarity songs to draw attention to their plight.
Passengers were now having anxiety about making their flights as most of them were holiday makers and some of them flying in and out of Africa for work. With the situation at hand most people then got out of their cars and other transport methods and started walking to the airport luggage in hand. Travellers that could not do this stated that they will go back to their homes or hotels and wait this lockdown out.
