By Abba Hamisu Sani
Africa-Press-Nigeria ASUU’s struggle is aimed at bringing the welfare of its members up to date with modern realities to foster staff commitment.
It also wants the universities to be upgraded in terms of facilities to rival their peers in other parts of the world where our ruling class and wealthy individuals send their children to enjoy sound education.
They want the Nigerian university system to be restored to enable it attract students from other parts of the world, which was the case in the 1960s and 1970s.
We see the ASUU struggle as the right cause, and we support it. The Nigerian ruling elite has not seen it fit to give the social sector – especially education and health
– the utmost priority it deserves.
This is because they have found ways of corruptly accessing public funds, enriching themselves and enjoying the educational and health services of other, more civilised countries.
The children of the middle class and the poor (of which those of ASUU are among) are left to languish in our decayed system from which they come out as unemployable products. We support the ASUU struggle, though we feel the pain of our children being made to stay away from their classrooms due to ASUU strikes.
We believe that ASUU demands can be met if government decides to go the extra mile to do so or, at least, produce a credible and actionable road-map.
NANS spits fire
President National Association of Nigerian Students(NANS), Sunday Asefon, has described the union’s industrial action as reckless and irresponsible, noting that ASUU failed to consider the implications it would have on students and tertiary institutions’ academic calendar.
“We are appalled by the impunity, recklessness, and irresponsibility the managers of this negotiation from both sides of the table have managed the fragile situation allowing it to degenerate to the level of industrial action. We are therefore, compelled to believe that negotiators from both sides acted so irresponsibly because of their apathy of the interest and welfare of the major stakeholder of the sector(students) during the negotiations.
A student popularly know as Wind writer says, Imagine spending 7 years on a 4yrs course and add that to the Covid break..8yrs on a 4yrs strike. Since I got admission the school system has never been stable. Every year ASUU, every year FG, every year strike. I even once forgot my matric number.
The thinking of many is that the two-month old strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has brought nothing other than pains, frustration and sadness to both undergraduate and postgraduate students nationwide.
This line of thinking is premised on the reasoning that apart from disruption academic calendar it will also jeopardise the graduation schedule of final year students.
But, a chat with these students has revealed that many students are actually seeing the strike as a blessing in disguise.
At the time the strike comenced nationwide, many institutions were preparing for the rain semester examinations. Not many students were ready to take the exams at that time due to what they call lack of adequate time for preparation.
Caught napping in this unpreparedness are mainly final year students who have been devoting more time to their projects rather than their course work. The strike has therefore provided an ample opportunity for them to concentrate more on their project rather than sharing their time between reading and project writing.
For many students, the strike has also given them time to attend training workshop and familiarisation tours of some corporate organisations during which they get acquainted with the world of work.
According to Ayuba Wada , a 400 Level Student of Business Administration at the Kaduna State University said of the on-going ASUU strike: like the strike because it gives me the opportunity to write my project.
I am in Chapter Four of my project now and by the time we resume, I will be able to face my courses and get prepared adequately for my final examination
Over the decades threats of strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and other sister unions are the bogeys that have continued to haunt our tertiary educational system.
They started in the 1970s, and yet, no regime has found a lasting solution to them.
The main cause of work stoppages is the Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, reached between the Federal Government and the union in 2008 which was never implemented. After series of strikes which always ended with the FG giving assurances during the negotiations, ASUU went on one of its most protracted strikes in March 2020, just before the Coronavirus pandemic lock-downs.
The union eventually called of the strike in December 2021 after the unimplemented MOU was renamed Memorandum of Action, MOA.
ASUU’s struggle is aimed at bringing the welfare of its members up to date with modern realities to foster staff commitment.
It also wants the universities to be upgraded in terms of facilities to rival their peers in other parts of the world where our ruling class and wealthy individuals send their children to enjoy sound education.
They want the Nigerian university system to be restored to enable it attract students from other parts of the world, which was the case in the 1960s and 1970s.
We see the ASUU struggle as the right cause, and we support it. The Nigerian ruling elite has not seen it fit to give the social sector – especially education and health
– the utmost priority it deserves.
This is because they have found ways of corruptly accessing public funds, enriching themselves and enjoying the educational and health services of other, more civilised countries.
The children of the middle class and the poor (of which those of ASUU are among) are left to languish in our decayed system from which they come out as unemployable products. We support the ASUU struggle, though we feel the pain of our children being made to stay away from their classrooms due to ASUU strikes.
We believe that ASUU demands can be met if government decides to go the extra mile to do so or, at least, produce a credible and actionable road-map.
The ASUU strike must be avoided at all cost.
NANS spits fire
President National Association of Nigerian Students(NANS), Sunday Asefon, has described the union’s industrial action as reckless and irresponsible, noting that ASUU failed to consider the implications it would have on students and tertiary institutions’ academic calendar.
“We are appalled by the impunity, recklessness, and irresponsibility the managers of this negotiation from both sides of the table have managed the fragile situation allowing it to degenerate to the level of industrial action. We are therefore, compelled to believe that negotiators from both sides acted so irresponsibly because of their apathy of the interest and welfare of the major stakeholder of the sector(students) during the negotiations.
A student popularly know as Wind writer says, Imagine spending 7 years on a 4yrs course and add that to the Covid break..8yrs on a 4yrs strike. Since I got admission the school system has never been stable. Every year ASUU, every year FG, every year strike. I even once forgot my matric number.
The thinking of many is that the two-month old strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has brought nothing other than pains, frustration and sadness to both undergraduate and postgraduate students nationwide.
This line of thinking is premised on the reasoning that apart from disruption academic calendar it will also jeopardise the graduation schedule of final year students.
But, a chat with these students has revealed that many students are actually seeing the strike as a blessing in disguise.
At the time the strike comenced nationwide, many institutions were preparing for the rain semester examinations. Not many students were ready to take the exams at that time due to what they call lack of adequate time for preparation.
Caught napping in this unpreparedness are mainly final year students who have been devoting more time to their projects rather than their course work. The strike has therefore provided an ample opportunity for them to concentrate more on their project rather than sharing their time between reading and project writing.
For many students, the strike has also given them time to attend training workshop and familiarisation tours of some corporate organisations during which they get acquainted with the world of work.
According to Ayuba Wada , a 400 Level Student of Business Administration at the Kaduna State University said of the on-going ASUU strike: “I like the strike because it gives me the opportunity to write my project. I am in Chapter Four of my project now and by the time we resume, I will be able to face my courses and get prepared adequately for my final examination.
