ASUU strike: Root cause of educational decay

It has been over two weeks since the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embark on an indefinite strike and yet nothing meaningful has come out of their meeting with the government concerning the strike. ASUU at its NEC meeting of 3rd and 4th November, 2018, at the FUTA, resolved to resume the national wide strike action it suspended in September, 2017 and yet nothing tangible has been done to avert the situation.

Reacting to this, the National President of the ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi said all entreaties made to the Federal Government to honour the agreement with the union fell on deaf ears and they had no other alternative but to begin the strike action. This is sad news as the strike compares students to stay away from the school activities and examination.

This is a sad turn of event as most students are praying earnestly for the Federal Government to fulfill their promise to ASUU so as the strike could be called off as they were preparing for their examination and some universities were already writing examination before the commencement of the strike. Many students whose parents could not afford their transport fare back home due to the fact that they were not anticipating the strike and therefore did not make provisions for it are still roaming around the campuses aimlessly.

While interacting with some students concerning the ongoing strike, Salmat Abdulwaheed, an M.Sc student in the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano expresses her worry when she said that “this strike has really disorganised my plans. Personally, my plan was to do my internal defence before the end of this year but as it is now, I am not sure whether the internal defence will hold this year. But why would the Federal Government renege on their agreement when they have the money? I am pleading with the Federal Government to settle ASUU so that we can go back to school”.

Corroborating this, Abubakar Aliyu Abba, a lecturer at Federal Polytechnic Mubi, Adamawa State, in the Department of Mass Communication also established that the strike is indeed a setback to students and lecturers alike. He pointed out that ASUU should dialogue with the Federal Government in order to come up with a lasting solution so that students can be able to go back to school and do their defence as well as those that were writing examination”.

There is no gainsaying to acknowledge the efforts tabled by the Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and that of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige towards seeing that the strike is called off. However, I must confess that their effort is not yielding any good since ASUU and the Federal Government have not reached an agreement. They should do more by ensuring that the demands of ASUU is met in the shortest time as this will redeem their image in the sight of the students and also print their names in the sands of time.

Aondover Eric Kano Msughter, Bayero University,