Following the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, that forced students to stay home for about eight months, Quest Times spoke to a cross-section of the affected students, who indicated that they made ground-breaking advances in their various fields to keep themselves busy during this period.
A court of appeal had ordered the striking lecturers to return to class after the National Industrial Court ruled against the union in a case brought to it by the Federal Government.
Days after the appeal court judgment, ASUU called off the strike and ordered members to resume lectures.
But the union’s National President, Emmanuel Osodeke, said the decision was not because issues brought by the lecturers were fully addressed.
“As you have seen from our press release – although they were interventions by the Speaker (Femi Gbajabiamila) and others – the major reason we are resuming is because we are obeying the industrial court’s judgment.
“The issues have not been fully resolved and no agreements signed,” he said during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, the idle students engaged in various activities to while away the time.
They engaged in acquiring skills and investing in projects, among other initiatives.
Some of the interviewed students bared their minds on the reopening of schools and also expressed their displeasure on the prolonged strike, while some saw the period as a blessing in disguise.
Tolulope Dada, a 200-level student from the Department of Mining Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, said the ASUU strike has been productive for him because he has made significant progress in his career since the strike began.
According to him, “the reopening of school is a welcome development but I just think calling off the strike when the agreement (between ASUU and FG) has not been met is like an accident that is about to happen bearing in mind that we might still be going for another strike in a couple of months from now.”
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One of the students, Ejiofor Toochie of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, UniLag, explained that she has been able to learn content writing and social media management despite the strike.
“I’ve been working during the strike, trying to learn a thing or two. I learned more about social media management, feature writing, creating video content, and a bit of script writing,” she said.
Abidemi Gideon, a postgraduate student of Multimedia and Journalism, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, asserted that he continued his shoemaking business during the back and forth between the striking lecturers and the federal government.
“As a matter of fact, in a sane clime, strike shouldn’t be what a student should experience at all because strike can cause both emotional and mental issues, especially when you’re seeing your friends signing out from other institutions.
“It’s so pathetic that our leaders don’t regard education and that’s why we’re experiencing this setback.”
He, however, blamed both parties (ASUU and FG) for the prolonged strike that paralysed academic activities for eight months.
“Well (sighs)… in as much as I’m blaming the Federal Government for not meeting up with ASUU demands, I will also blame the ASUU for suspending the strike while the federal government is yet to meet up their demands.
“This means that there is every tendency that in a few months, they might embark on industrial action again and this would be another big problem for the students.
“In fact, the fear of whether ASUU will embark on strike in few months or not is what’s still hindering some students from resuming back to classes since the strike has been suspended,” he opined.
Elizabeth Achobe of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said that the strike has been profitable for her because she got several offers during the period.
Achobe said, “Though the strike disrupted our studies, I was nonetheless not idle. I did an internship at a media firm to gain more experience as a journalist and also as a source of livelihood.”
She added; “I actually blame the federal government for the prolonged strike because if they (FG) had done what is right (meeting the demands of ASUU), there would not have been any reason for ASUU to go on strike.”
Another postgraduate student from the University of Ibadan, UI, who identified herself as Lady Bright, blamed the federal government for neglecting ASUU.
“The federal government should be blamed for the strike. From underfunding to poor infrastructure, their lack of investment in education is too glaring not to be noticed.
“Besides, there’s a sense in which the persisting ASUU strike represents a sad commentary on the abyss into which educational values have sunk in Nigeria.
“Not only does it drip with the increasingly loose and lewd direction of the nation, but it also poignantly shows how futile the attempt to get our leaders to value education has been,” she said.
For Cleopatra, a 200-level Law student at the University of Ilorin, UniIlorin, the reopening of school is a welcome development, he, however, opined that the strike was “frustrating and annoying”.
“Though the strike was a bit frustrating I’m happy that we can now resume our classes.”