Chisom Mefor: ASUU Strike – Are We Taking Ten Steps Backward?

Over the years, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been firm in fighting for and demanding the rights of university workers from the federal government. The union has been active in the struggles to obtain fair wages, unpaid arrears, staff welfare and other demands centred on funding and revitalizing Nigerian public universities.

Nigerian students continue to suffer neglect from the government on all levels. On the 14th of February, 2022, ASUU went on a one-month warning strike before going on an indefinite strike extension. 6 months later, and there’s no significant outcome from the ongoing negotiations and renegotiations between the union and government.

ASUU is not to be spared in this blame either; these ceaseless strikes have become counterproductive and now constitute an existential threat to the system it claims to liberate.

Beyond education, we underestimate the impact of these on and off, never-ending strike actions. A friend of mine, Joy Obor said: “UNN (University of Nigeria, Nsukka) is the major driver of economic growth in the Nsukka community.” What this simply means is entrepreneurial activities depend on a wide range of dynamic organizational capabilities. Whenever the school is shut, every other sector grinds to a halt – from shuttle buses within the school to transporters like Peace Mass, GIGM and GUO and so on, banks, POS operators, food suppliers, event ushers, caterers, hoteliers, waiters/waitresses, hairdressers, market traders – the list goes on.

UNN is just one school, now take a moment to imagine this harsh reality across 81 federal and state universities in Nigeria that have been shut for 6 months. Thousands of Nigerians are dependent on the economic units and businesses on campus to survive, and what this strike does is take away their source of income. Nigeria currently risks a third recession in 7 years, yet, with the disturbing trend in the nation’s economic growth, people are forced to halt their sales because of strikes and are plunged deeper into poverty.

There are speculations that the strike may be extended soon and I cannot help but wonder why Nigeria seems to retrogress from all angles. Families are crying out for help, and lecturers/non-academic staff that form the bulk of the middle class are fast slipping into poverty. This strike is too expensive and the people are paying heavily for it.

Speaking to Business Day, Yusuf, a trader at the University of Lagos, Akoka, had this to say: “We have experienced a massive sales drop as a result of the unavailability of students on campus. On a normal day, we would make about N40,000 but now, we barely get N5000. That’s about 87.5 per cent decline, the difference is quite clear.”

A restaurateur, Mr. Lanre, who has been forced to lay off his student staffers told the correspondent: “I have asked my boys to stay back because the daily income can no longer cater for their wages again. When the students were here, I used to have up to 5 staff, but as the students who are the key customers, are not here, I have been forced to reduce the number to 2.

Currently, employers complain that many Nigerian graduates are not employable. We can draw a straight line between the poor education system in Nigeria to the poor quality of graduates being churned out. Although Nigeria produces about 600,000 graduates yearly, many of them – who are to make up the labour force – are said to be largely ill-educated. We cannot rule out the ripple effects of these strikes on the academic performance and the psychology of the students.

Frequent interruptions of the academic calendar continue to affect the quality of graduates that are churned out in society. Upon resumption, many lecturers resort to rush academic work in order to catch up with the time already lost. It’s left to the students to either catch up or fall out.

At this point, and as a student, I am tired. If truly education is the foundation of a great future for any individual or child, why is getting an education so difficult in this part of the world?

Aluta discontinua.

 

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