By; RACHAEL SAMSON, Kaduna
The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), has caused setback to Nigerian students in the areas of their academic pursue hence most students have a brighter future.
It would be recalled that ASUU started its strike on February 14, 2022 and JAC commenced it’s own on April 14, 2022.
The unions embarked on industrial action while demanding improved welfare packages, better working condition and the implementation of various labour agreements signed with the federal government between 2009 and 2020.
ASUU strikes have done more harm than good on the education sector of the students, bearing most of the accruing costs from the occurrences.
As a result of the regular strikes, most students resort to venturing into town for opportunities to earn stipends.
Some of them end up securing employment with big organizations.
This situation makes education less interesting and sets them in a tight corner when classes resume from the industrial action.
The painful part of the strike is that the impact is still felt among universities and the school calendar changes, which does not favour students.
Some students who were interviewed expressed disappointment, saying it is for no fault of theirs, but that they are the ones being punished.
A student of Lagos State University (LASU), Grace Joseph wondered what exactly is stopping the government from honoring agreement with ASUU.
She said that, “they have been meeting for a very long time but still the ASUU issue has not been settled. It’s really affecting us, the students. It’s not fair on us”.
For Hauwa Karaye, a 300 level student of public administration, the strike is not supposed to hold.
She said, “my point is that the students are not to be blamed, they have paid for the service through the payment of their school fees, so ASUU should find an alternative means of getting the government to do the needful”.
According to her, students are made to spend too much time in school due to strike actions and when they finally graduate, age is not on their side and employers reject them over age for job positions, strike is not a way forward in our tertiary institutions.
On the part of parents, Mrs Joy Anthony said it is unfortunate that the issue between ASUU and government has lingered for so long and there appears to be no solution anywhere soon.
She said in other countries, this would have been sorted out long ago because most nations do not play with the education of their populace, but Nigeria is a country where evil thrives because some few individuals stand to benefit.
She expressed fears that many students may derail when they stay idle for long.
Mrs Anthony said that it is the poor masses that have children in public schools and cannot afford private ones or those abroad that are suffering.
Umar Abdullahi Suleman, a 500 level student of pharmacy at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, said the strike has affected his mental health in some ways, particularly by inducing anxiety of whether the academic activities will resume or not and when.
He said, “there has been that anxiety of when we are going to resume, if we are even going to resume, because I want to graduate on time to be able to apply for jobs that come with age limits. Also, many other plans such as marriage, keep getting disrupted.
