By Uzair Adam Imam
Students and their parents are worried as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) threatens to embark on a fresh indefinite strike.
Recall that ASUU suspended its nine-month-long strike in 2020 after reaching an agreement with the Federal Government. Still, after a year, the government is yet to fulfil its promises to the union.
The ASUU’s strike has been described as one of the most lingering issues that has been paralysing Nigerian universities, leading to the delay in students’ graduation and the deterioration of the education system in the country.
Not only that, many people argue that the strike has destroyed the future of many promising youths.
In a statement on Thursday, the Chairperson of ASUU Kano State Branch, Comrade Haruna Musa, and the Union’s Secretary, Comrade Yusuf U. Madugu, declared Monday, February 7, 2022, as a lecture-free day.
Its essence is for ASUU to use the day to sensitise university students, parents and other stakeholders on the brewing crisis arising from the Federal Government’s failure to implement the existing agreements with the union judiciously.
Educational sector at the receiving end
A lecturer at the Department of Nigerian Languages, Bayero University, Kano, Dr Muhammad Sulaiman Abdullahi, said that the strike was killing the country’s educational sector and the economy.
Dr Abdullahi cried: “It is a sad development. It looks childish and an endless menace, especially to the Nigerian educational system. Strike has become a thorn in the flesh of Nigeria’s general development. No nation can prosper morally in such a nasty situation. It is, indeed, unfortunate.”
He added that the situation “generally makes people, teachers, students and their parents to become very dull and uncertain of their future. You can take it to the banks that crime rate will somersault, and new bad things will manifest within the wider community”.
Students at risk
The president of the Mass Communication Students Association (MACOSA), Bayero University, Kano chapter, Comrade Sadisu Sada, decried that industrial action in Nigerian universities had been there for quite a long time.
He said, “It is worrying. The issue affects students directly. And for me, the government is to blame.
“ASUU is doing her best to give the educational system all that it requires. If not, education would have died.”
Umar Isah Dandago, an undergraduate of the Department of Mass Communication in the university, also voiced his grievance, saying this would delay his graduation.
Dandago said: “We would have graduated if not for the 2020 strike. This is a serious problem. A lot of people want to do something, like setting up a new business after university, but because of the strike, it’s becoming almost impossible.”
He, therefore, urged the Federal Government to give ASUU what it demanded, saying, “I believe it’s not even half of what’s being squandered in some things that are not important to us. So let’s get the education we deserve as Nigerians so that we’ll be proud of our leaders and our country.”
Also speaking, Comrade Ibrahim Mukhtar Sulaiman, a level 300 student, said: “Sadly, students taking a four-year course will graduate in five, six or seven years. And this affects not only their academic careers but also their personal life.”
Parents raise alarm
As the strike looks imminent, some parents lamented that the brewing crisis between the government and ASUU jeopardises their children’s future.
A parent, Malam Adamu Kolo, who looked disturbed by the imminent strike, said that his son would have graduated if not for ASUU incessant strike.
Malam Adamu Kolo said, “My son would have graduated this year if not because of ASUU incessant strike. You can see that I am poor. I am hopeless. Our hope is on this boy.”
