By Abdulrasaq Kamaldeen.
This year, there’s is zero hope of resumption. In fact, with the way things are unfolding, this ASUU strike will live longer than expected even next year. Students of public universities have been staying at homes for over seven months, and still counting. And this is not even the first time they would be facing the calamity. In 2020, schools were shut down for nine months. Owing to reasons we cannot even explain again.See, I’m not here to throw punches at the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) or the Nigerian federal government. Because, both are depictions of birds of the same feather. But the most saddening issue is that they are making it a crime to study in a public university in Nigeria.
ASUU strike: Resign now, NANS tells education minister
Yes. You have to pay it with your emotional and mental balance; and your precious time.The worst thing I hate to hear from ASUU is: we are fighting for the students. How ? To me, I still need more than a professor to explain this to me. At the end of the whole struggle, students would be at the receiving end. Many hostels are burgled and valuable things are carted away. And most importantly our precious time is lost. To agree with ASUU that they are fighting for the students, the labour union should find a way to include the item of students’ compensation in their struggle agenda.Strike has become a last resort for unions in Nigeria. And unfortunately, the giant of Africa is blessed with clueless, shameless and cold-hearted leaders. They don’t mind if the children of the masses are staying at homes for over two years. There’s no doubt about this. Education is not a priority to leaders of Nigeria. To say that education is even a right is the highest lie one can ever say again in this country. They would rather have their children study abroad than invest money in resurrecting our dying public universities. Now I understand why Chinue Achebe said there was a country. How can the leaders be so lethargic to allow over 40 public universities to shut down due to problems that, if they want, would be solved within 24hours? All necessary measures were taken to allow this government to see why they should end this strike. But they have turned blind eyes to everything. The Nigeria Labour Union organized a nationwide protest to draw the attention of the government, but I can tell you that the protest had even shifted far away their attention to the burning issue.Both ASUU and FG are making education a product for the rich alone. The masses cannot afford it. Strike upon strike all the time with no palatable result. ASUU and FG should do the needful to impede this strike so that there will be no more crisis than what is happening in the country.
