The indefinite strike by the Academic
Staff Union of Universities, which started
on July 1, 2013, has come with both pains
and gains and mixed reactions, with
students eager to return to academic
work
With the Academic Staff Union of
Universities remaining adamant in pushing
through their demands by going on strike,
academic activities have been paralysed
throughout the nation's universities
leading once again to the loss of
appreciable academic time by the students.
This strike, which is on in protest of the
non-implementation of the 2009
agreement with the Federal Government, is
delicately poised with both parties not
knowing yet what it will take to win.
While some have described the action as
just another strike that may produce no
purposeful ending, the union leadership
believes that it will bring a revolution to
the country's education system.
ASUU President, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge argued
that the union had embarked on the strike
to compel the Federal Government to
address some other important issues
endangering the quality of education in
the country.
He said, "We are embarking on indefinite
strike because the Federal Government
reneged in the Memorandum of
Understanding signed with ASUU in 2009
to pay lecturers their allowance."
Throwing more light on the Academic
Earned Allowance, ASUU chairman
University of Lagos chapter, Dr. Karo
Ogbinaka, said it included allowances paid
as part of excess work load, responsibility
allowance and allowance for supervision
of Post Graduate Programmes for lecturers,
head of department, deans and exam
officers, among others. He added that the
highest allowance is not more than N12,
500 per month, wondering why it has
remained difficult for government to live
up to its promises.
But the lingering strike has infuriated some
of the students who seemed to have lost
their patience with their lecturers and the
Federal Government. Some of them told
SUNDAY PUNCH that the feuding parties
have no regard for their future.
Sikiru Akinola, a Political Science student at
the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,
would have graduated in December but his
hopes of stepping into the next stage of
his life are thinning daily as the strike
continues. He expresses his frustration at
being idle as a result of the inability of
both parties to resolve the issue, pointing
out that irregular school calendar in public
institutions places their counterparts in
private institutions over them when
looking for employment.
He said, "I had my eyes set on December
after four years at the university but with
the strike, the calendar will definitely be
affected and that is one of the things
making graduates unemployable.
"Imagine a private university student
graduating at 20 and 21 while we
graduate at 27. I've been in school since
the last seven years (NCE and Degree). It
would be unfair if my time in the
university has to be extended because of a
fault I did not have a hand in. One of the
reasons why public university graduates
are getting it difficult to be employed is
because they usually graduate at the
average age of 27 while those in private
school graduate at 20 and 21."
He added that lecturers had taken the strike
too far this time. "Though, we are in
support of our lecturers, it is the belief of
majority of our students that the union is
being insincere with their latest showdown
with government. Each time there is an
ASUU strike, the students are always at the
receiving end. Rather than embark on a
strike which cannot solve their problems,
they should use other means to press for
their demands. Perhaps if there is a law
that forces all political office holders to
enrol their children in Nigerian universities,
the schools would be better than what it is
today. Dialogue and not strike, can achieve
a lasting solution."
Akinola's position on the strike is
supported by Toyosi Oguntuase, who is
studying Law at the University of Ibadan.
Oguntuase said the strike had created a
gap between the students and academic
work.
She said, "You cannot stay connected fully
to your studies when you are at home and
once the strike ends, examinations will
start in order to make up with the time lost.
The lecturers will not have the chance to
complete teaching the content of our
syllabuses. This utterly destroys our school
calendar and curriculum. It also destroys
the standard of our education and draws
the students back."
The law student also wondered if the
parties involved had children in the
affected institutions.
"I feel that this strike is really unfair to
students considering the fact that some of
the people involved in the strike don't
have their children in public universities.
Also, it shouldn't have come when students
are preparing for their examinations. The
union should use on other methods to
make their demands instead of frustrating
the students in their academic works."
A final year student of Metallurgical and
Materials Engineering at the Federal
University of Technology, Akure,
Onigbajumo Adetunji-Bouquiey, said
Nigerian leaders have failed to pay back
the nation for the free education and
scholarships thy enjoyed in the past.
He said, "The generation is unlucky
because they are not enjoying what our
leaders enjoyed when they were going to
school. They had free education and
scholarships to study abroad even when
their parents could not afford the quality
of education they had. Our own generation
has been cheated because the same
leaders who had sound education in their
own time now consider quality education
u
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