Today, July 31, 2022, marks 167 days since the gates of federal universities across the country were shut due to an industrial action embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Sadly, the strike, which commenced on February 14, 2022, about five months 17 days today seems to be unending despite several meetings, interventions, consultations and FG-ASUU negotiations, which have yielded no result.
There is no assurance that the strike would be called off at the anticipated meeting of the National Executive Council of ASUU slated for tomorrow, August 1, 2022.
But away from the fight between the Federal Government and ASUU; as the proverbial two elephants fight, the students, their parents and businesses that depend on functional campuses are bearing the brunt.
The undergraduates are idling away; their parents are worried as the months of inactivity are having negative impacts on the would-be leaders of tomorrow, while many businesses are wrecked, leaving the owners in debt, poor health conditions and some even dead.
I don’t know why the government is less concerned, the undergraduates are idling away every day, some in illegal business, some die trying to cross to Europe by road, you heard of the many killed in a North African country recently, but you cannot stop them because they are idle. Government please open universities; it is in your hands,” the travel journalist said.
Of course, the rank of bus conductors is swelling with many undergraduates, especially in Lagos, who cannot stay at home again, and you know them by their more respectful demeanor.
Meanwhile, a study by an independent education initiative, sponsored by an Abuja-based Christian organisation for some federal university undergraduates, revealed that 20 out of 100 undergraduates opened their books to read in the first month of the strike, with a huge decline to 5 out of 100 in the fourth month.
The frightening decline, according to the study, speaks volume of the rot among undergraduates because of the long strike.
“We will see a situation where lecturers will begin afresh and many students will struggle to catch up with class work, though many drop out on the account of traveling abroad for greener pastures, being held down by family business, sickness, death of the students or their sponsors, among other challenges. So, you are not going to see a full class,” the report further revealed.
While the gates of the federal universities across the country are shut for close to six months now, wealthy Nigerians are flaunting the graduation pictures and videos of their children and of their own in foreign universities, which many say is an insult to the right-thinking and long-suffering citizens.
THE STUDENTS ASK A QUESTION EVERDAY,"WHEN ARE WE RESUMING"
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