Students Groan As Strike Bites Harder

With the recent strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), almost all campuses are now empty as both students and staff have vacated the school premises. Following closely on the heels of the ASUU strike is the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU)'s strikes. Members of these unions decided to join the ongoing strike in solidarity of their fellow workers to protest non payment of money due to them. N.B Visit www.campusflava.com for updates and information related to other schools.   A mild drama played out in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, recently when members of NASU denied some staff of the entry by parking their motorbikes at the road. They also came with mats and matresses, which they lay on the road and slept on them, just to get the of the authorities to listen to their grieviances. On Monday, the Senate summoned officials of the ASUU together with the Minister of Education over the strike, in a bid to finding lasting solutions to the lingering crisis. The strike is coming at a bad time for most students as almost all the universities were about to begin their second semester examinations. These had to be put on hold as lecturers refused to administer such examinations.. Even if they had been willing to conduct the examinations, it was not possible with the involvement of the Non Accademic Staff Union (NASU) in the strike because this body is responsible for typing questions, stamping answer sheets, cleaning exam halls, among other responsibilities. At the University of Lagos, students were seen within the premises, with a few idle lecturers present. The same situation was observed at the Lagos State University (LASU), where students were seen in different lecture rooms, chatting and whiling away time. As a result of the strikes by the unions, authorities of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Osun State, over the weekend, ordered the students to proceed on a temporary break. A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju, directed students to vacate their halls of residence with immediate effect. All foreign students in the institution were, however, asked to liaise with the Dean of Students Affairs for arrangement on their stay on campus for the period of the break. Also, the institution's post-JAMB screening slated for today, has been postponed, indefinitely. Similarly, authorities of the University of Ibadan have given a two-week break to academic and non-academic staff. Students at the University of Abuja, especially the part- time ones were, quite badly, affected by the strike action as they had already commenced their examinations. Of course, they had to stop halfway and most of them will have to go back to complete the semester examination after the strike would have been called off. This, invariably, means the students would have their stay prolonged in the institution. A student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, who spoke with campusrendezvous on condition of anonymity, said "the strike has caused a break in the academic calender and now, we will not graduate in time. They say "an idle mind is the devil's workshop," but we don't want that to be our case. We plead with the government and ASUU to resolve their differences as soon as possible so that we can go back to school. "I wonder how long these lecturers will be able to watch their children sitting at home, doing nothing, because I want to believe that most, if not all, of them have university-age children in their homes." A law student at the University of Abuja believes the lecturers are justified in going on strike after issuing a warning to the government. He, however, called on the lecturers to temper justice with mercy and put the plight of the students into consideration as they don't want to spend avoidable time in the higher institutions as undergraduates. "Some of us have laid out our plans and targets. For instance, I hope to have completed my first degree by 2011 but with the way things are going, that may be an unachievable dream. People hardly spend the stipulated four, five or six years, as the case may be, in the university these days. "We have one strike action after the other; we are not even encouraged to study in Nigeria. Our parents keep on wondering why we want to study abroad, I'm sure they now understand what we've been talking about,"he said. Another student of the University of Abuja, Mojisola Yusuf, who runs a part-time course, was able to write four of her five papers before the strike began. She said she would have prefered to write all her papers together at once and wished the lecturers could have given them a concession, considering the fact that most of them had to travel to town for the examination.