House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila on Tuesday circulated photos of himself receiving lectures at Harvard University in the United States. 

Mr Gbajabiamila’s show-off overlapped today’s protests across the country over protracted strikes of university academics that entered their sixth month this week.

On Tuesday, Mr Gbajabiamila announced his return to class at the American University, sharing photos of himself and his colleagues on his official Twitter page.

“Back to class. In a leadership course at @Harvard @Kennedy_School . Forget the number of grey hairs one is never too old to learn, broaden or sharpen your skills,” Mr Femi said in a tweet.

Mr Gbajabiamila’s action drew anger from Nigerians, with many slaming him as insensitive to the plight of Nigerian students whose academic activities have been disrupted by the lingering industrial action.

“While our students are at home helpless, and our lecturers are under the bridge protesting. Posterity will judge,” a Twitter user @aayanate said.

“Abandoning your duty here as the speaker of the house. One of the many reasons the senate/ the house should have been on a part-time affairs,” another Twitter user @ifGodbefomi said.

ASUU strike has seen public universities across the country shut down since February, leaving hundreds of thousands of students at home.

The union said successive Nigerian administrations failed to implement the agreements reached in 2009. ASUU has demanded Mr Buhari adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for paying universities’ staff salaries instead of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System and the payment of academic earned allowance (EAA), among others. 

On Tuesday, Nigeria Labour Congress across the country protested in solidarity with ASUU, demanding that President Muhammadu Buhari meet their demands so students could return to school. The protests were held in Lagos, Jos, Akure and other cities across the country.