Rivers students threaten demonstration over closure of schools

Lorine Emenike

The President, National Union of Rivers State Students (NURSS), Comrade Zechariah Levy George, has called on the government to reopen schools, as students are tired of staying home and might have no option but to embark on a peaceful demonstration against the government.

Comrade George said during an interview with our correspondent that “government should reopen schools. It is not helping students, it is not doing us any good. Closing the schools is more deadly and harmful than the dreaded coronavirus. So why are we shutting our schools?

“You say these students are the leaders of tomorrow! How are they the leaders of tomorrow when their schools have remained shut down? You do not want them to be given the prerequisites on how to lead tomorrow, so I think that schools should be open to and academic activities take place. That is what we think, otherwise, we will be forced as students to go into the streets and start doing unnecessary things.

“So the schools should be looked into and be open. If they’re not open, I think Nigeria students will be forced to have a peaceful demonstration.

“I want to bring to the notice of the public that the statement which was made several weeks ago by the minister of education, Adamu Adamu on the issue of school resumption, stating that schools will not resume anytime soon, I think it is not a welcome development because the students have stayed much longer at home.

“The pandemic that we are talking about has come to stay to the best of our knowledge because there are so many practices that have been put in place for this pandemic to go away, yet the pandemic has stayed more than we expected it to stay.

“We, therefore, call on the government to reconsider and have the thought of schools opening and not say schools will not open anytime soon.

“Anytime soon can be in two years and the academic calendar has really gone far and many students may lose one academic year.

“There are so many things to put in place for schools to reopen, we need to prepare for the prerequisites of schools opening and government should please look into doing that”