Students of the Kaduna Polytechnic at the weekend threatened to stage a mass protest if President Goodluck Jonathan does not address the crisis bedevilling the institution within two weeks.
The Academic Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) of the institution embarked on an indefinite strike on January 28 over issues bordering on staff welfare, misappropriation of funds, injustice by the authorities and general decadence of the institution.

Speaking to Daily Trust, the president-elect of the Students Union Government of the institution, Comrade Mohammed Shafiu Dan-Inna urged President Jonathan to as a matter of urgency prevail on the management of the institution and the union to make peace in the interest of the students and country.

He said they decided to give President Jonathan two weeks to resolve the crisis at an emergency meeting held at the weekend.

He said if the president fails to do that, the SUG would mobilise over 30,000 students of the institution to stage a protest to the Villa and the National Assembly.

“ When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, this saying aptly depicts what is happening to us. We are at the receiving end, and all efforts to make the warring factions sheath their swords is not yielding results,’’ he said.

While calling on the Northern Governor’s Forum (NGF), emirs and other prominent leaders in the region to also intervene, the student leader said the industrial action has in no small measure taken the North and Nigeria back educationally.

“They should intervene to restore academic activities in the school. Since the establishment of the polytechnic in 1958, it has not experienced any strike like this one. We know that the strike is taking the country back educationally because Kaduna Polytechnic has been playing a significant role in the production of manpower needed for the development of the country,’’ he said