President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to NANS and labour unions to reduce their agitations to enable his administration to concentrate on repairing damaged infrastructure. He aid this during a meeting with the executive committee of the National Association of Nigerian Students at the State House,  Abuja on Thursday.

He specifically called on the Academic Staff Union of Universities to appreciate the efforts of his administration at fixing collapsed infrastructure.

Buhari promised the students that he would speak to ASUU to call off the current industrial action “so that they don’t encroach on your efforts to qualify (graduate) in time.” He said.

 In a veiled reference to the call by ASUU that the government should meet its financial demands, Buhari told the students that he had laid bare the income and expenditure of the government in the 2019 budget for all to see.

Earlier in their remarks, the students, led by the president, Danielson Bamidele Akpan, had expressed appreciation of the efforts of the administration, especially in the transformation of the transportation sector as well as the decimation of terrorists in the Northeast.

They, however, requested the government to intervene in the incessant strikes in the education sector; involve more youths in governance; and look into the plight of students in different institutions who have been expelled for ‘political’ reasons.

In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, “President Buhari expressed gratitude to the students for appreciating some of the things his administration has been able to put in place and called on them to mobilise support for government, as it strives to make Nigeria a better place.