On Saturday, students stormed the Royal African Young Leadership Forum, a program founded by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi. The students demonstrated against the Academic Staff Union of Universities' ongoing strike.
The program was created to recognize and reward outstanding leadership roles among young Nigerians and youths.
The awards ceremony, which featured popular #ENDSARS activist Rinu Oduala, Governor Akeredolu's son, Babajide Akeredolu, and 98 other nominees, was held at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, where students stormed the hall, holding placards and repeatedly chanting "End ASUU Strike!"
It was gathered that the students had arrived at the venue anticipating the presence of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, with the same goal of expressing their displeasure with the continued closure of schools due to the strike action of staff unions across the country's public institutions.
On Friday, the Vice President paid a visit to Osogbo, the state capital, as part of his preparations for the presidential election in 2023.
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One of the students who had gathered under the auspices of Fund Education Campaign and Concerned Nigerian Students, Omowumi Ewatee, told our correspondent, "We came to protest the strike, the Vice President is part of the strike's problems."
“They cannot be coming to our school that is closed due to strike and be doing political publicity in the same school,” she said.
ASUU had begun its strike action on February 14 over claims that the Federal Government had failed to honour the agreement it had with the lecturers on the revitalisation of the university system, and payment of Earned Academic Allowance, among others.
