By Emmanuel Ebimoh
It’s no news that the yearly tussle for supremacy between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government has begun again this year. Students of Nigerian Federal and State Universities under ASUU woke up to the news of an indefinite strike action which will stop all academic work in universities on Monday, 14th August 2017.
According to the Union President, Biodun Ogunyemi, this recent strike action is necessitated on grounds that the federal government have so far refused to follow-up on their own parts of the agreement with the university board union. The MoU, which is basically an agitation by ASUU to ensure a better future for the university system in the country and the overall educational development, got its root in 2009 and has been a cause for various strike actions.
Since 1999 till date, ASUU has embarked on strike actions almost every year to press home their demands. In total, the union has so far called for an abandonment of work from her members 12 times in 13years. Breaking it down better, since 1999, out of a possible 156 months of academic work, 30 months have been spent on strikes. That is about 20% of the total time for academic work crushed down. In 2009 and 2010, this strike action by ASUU lasted for 4 and 5 months respectively. Few years before then during the 2003-2004 academic school calendar, this strike action kept students at home for 6 months.
Most times during these academic strike actions, students have been forced to retreat to different sorts of negative survival techniques to curb idleness and make ends meet. Some go into armed robbery, prostitution, gambling, internet fraud, hooliganism, etc. At these periods, the intellectual awareness of many students decreases because most of them become nonchalant to read their books and keep their mind positively busy. The effect of this awkward trend is seen in the social vices mentioned above.
So one question that comes to mind is how does this continuous strike action benefit the Nigerian students? Federal and State universities were not instituted to become static and void of academic activities, but to educate Nigerian youths to become better citizens tomorrow.
Other questions that come to mind are:
- Who is benefitting from these indefinite strike actions, the federal government or ASUU? Or are they both sincerely affected by these continuous halt of academic activities in both federal and state universities?
- If certain agreements were made between the two parties and there’s any breach on the part of one, is an indefinite strike action that ultimately increases the proposed number of years a Nigerian student is supposed to spend in the university the only way out?
- If ASUU has been agitating for the federal government to meet up with its demands according to an agreement reached and even threatening with numerous strike actions, then why is the government refusing to meet its own part of the agreement? Is there any genuine reason to it or is one trying to punish the other?
Until these questions are answered sincerely, our educational system will continue to grumble for attention in the whim of certain persons for the pain of all or the gain of a few.
