By Job Osazuwa

“When two elephants fight, the grass suffers. In this endless fight between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government, we the students are the grass suffering the consequences.”

Those were the words a frustrated student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Raymond Love-Egbe. He told Saturday Sun that he was just a month away from graduating before the aggrieved lecturers commenced their industrial action earlier in the year.   

No doubt, the lingering strike embarked upon by members of ASUU has dealt the students disoriented blows and shattered many plans and dreams.

As things stand, there seems to be no end in sight, as the warring parties have yet to arrive at a compromise. Though there have been series of meetings and protests by different stakeholders, the protracted strike has continued unabated.  The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have demonstrated at different times, asking the government and ASUU to find a common ground and reopen the universities. But all efforts have yielded no result.

It is already more than six months since the striking lecturers began the industrial action to protest Federal Government’s failure to implement the agreement it reached with the union.

Across the country, university campuses have become ghost lands, as government and union leaders fail to agree on the vexed issues of implementation of the 2009 pact and Memorandum of Agreement bordering on welfare, improved funding to universities, the proliferation of universities, discontinuation of the controversial Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) for University Transparency and Accountability Payment System (UTAS), among others.

Just when the affected students and their parents thought they were about to heave a sigh of relief, as a meeting between the ASUU and the negotiation team of the Federal Government held some days ago, their hopes were shattered once again, as the meeting ended in a deadlock. And like Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot, the wait by parents and students continues.

ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, had on different occasions, assured Nigerians that the union would call off its strike if the Federal Government presented a decent proposal.

Making the government position known, the Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, on March 3, informed that the Federal Government lacked the funds to meet its obligations in the agreement signed with the ASUU.

Ngige said the government was left with considering a renegotiation of the terms of the agreement with ASUU to pacify the aggrieved lecturers and end the strike.

Concerned Nigerians have expressed worry that incessant strikes have forced many male students into anti-social vices, while some of the female students have decided to get married. Some others have been impregnated out of wedlock.

Love-Egbe said: “I am speaking with so much frustration because my life has practically been placed on hold in the last six months. This strike has hindered me in so many ways. I was supposed to have graduated in 2021 but due to COVID-19 pandemic and other hiccups, that didn’t happen.  It was just one month away to my final examinations that the strike began. I gained admission into the university very late and here I am still struggling to graduate after about six years for a four-year course.

“When I was in 200 Level, my friend that gained admission into a private university has graduated as we speak while I am still at my final year. The government officials might not be too concerned with our plight because most of their children school abroad. 

“From the looks of things, age is longer on the side of so many of my schoolmates. Many of us might not be able to graduate this year anymore because the year is almost gone. Another danger is that many students will not be able to participate in the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exercise due to the age limit barrier.

“My question is what compensation is on the table for our precious time wasted. All along, none of the parties has put any modality in place to engage us meaningfully. We are left out in the cold like orphans. 

“My plea to the Federal Government is to play the father figure to the Nigerian students and honour its agreement with ASUU. We understand the situation of the economy and other sectors also in need of intervention.

“If the government says there is no money, it should then enter into another new and sincere agreement with ASUU to end the strike. It is all about shifting ground and pleading for a timeframe to fulfil the new agreement. The government must be sincere about the negotiation.

“For ASUU, the aggrieved members should also shift ground and return to the classroom for our sake. ASUU and the Federal Government are two heavyweights trampling on us. We are pleading with both parties to have mercy on us.”

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Also lamenting, Egbedion Favour, a student studying Geology at one of the federal universities, described the strike as one too many. She wondered why both parties could not resolve same issues that have lingered for decades. She regretted that the students have been at the receiving end.

Just like Raymond, Favour was also in her final year until her academic destiny came to an abrupt standstill. She called on the authorities to intervene and resolve the crisis. She lamented that the students’ future was being toyed with.

“Everything is happening to the detriment of the innocent students. It was never our fault that the government didn’t meet up with the demands. So why should we be the ones to suffer for it? We are only pleading for the schools to reopen so that we can move on to the next level in life.

“The strike has disrupted many students’ plans in life. Six months of staying at home is not a joke. Most of the students have been at home doing nothing and this is not good for the security of the country because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

“It is high time Nigeria took its education sector more seriously. Education is the bedrock of any development and our leaders at all levels should know this.

“Whatever happens to us is none of their business because their children are not in Nigerian schools. Public office holders have all the money they need to sponsor their children abroad thereby leaving us to our fate.

“Sadly, many students are still writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The question that we should be asking is, which universities are the students going to? Are they the ones that are closed?” she said.      But Favour said that she was lucky to have quickly learnt some skills when it became clearer to her that the industrial action was not going to end soon.

She said: “I quickly put one and two together and I told myself that I needed to make good use of the time that was being wasted. I am learning all kinds of things – baking, tying headgear and make-up, decoration of halls for events as well as event planning. 

“I am already thinking of opening my shop and start making money from it from time to time. Even if I don’t go into it fully myself, I can establish it and train and employ good hands to run it while I do other things. At the moment, there is no job relating to this area that I cannot handle.”

A disturbed parent, Mr Michael Olatunji, told the reporter that his daughter at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) was affected by the strike.

“I just rented a house for her in Yaba area of Lagos and she had barely spent a month there when the strike started. In the next five months or so, her rent will expire. The landlord will definitely ask us to pay another one for the accommodation that she didn’t stay in. This is the kind of situation we find ourselves in Nigeria. It could be very painful when innocent students suffer what they know nothing about.

“For crying out loud, lecturers are not the only government workers in Nigeria. So it baffles me that they are always holding the government and the students to ransom. They don’t care about us the masses because their children are not affected,” Olatunji said.

Another parent, Mr Taju Sodeinde, whose daughter studies at a federal university in the South-West, both the federal government and the striking lecturers are callous. While lampooning the government for always reneging on agreements, he pooh-poohed the lecturers for always going on strike at the slightest disagreement with government.

“If every policeman, soldier, electricity worker, telecoms worker, journalist, teacher, doctor, nurse etc goes on strike at the slightest excuse, where would the nation be? We’re just tired,” he bemoaned.

Also contributing, Evelyn Udoh, a student of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, said she had studied all her courses for the semester that was halted. She said she had been improving herself through different training programmes, which she described as an eye opener.

Said her: “Though it is boring, there is nothing I can do about it at the moment. I sometime feel useless because being idle is very frustrating. I have read everything online pertaining to my courses and there’s nothing to read anymore. I am just praying daily for God to touch the heart of the lecturers and government so that everything can be resolved.”

A 100-level student of the University of Lagos, Babatunde Samuel said: “The strike is uncalled for and a total waste of time, waste of knowledge. My life has remained at one spot since February. This is wickedness and unnecessary delay. Only God knows how many more strikes that will take place before I graduate.

“This is too early for me to fully understand. I never knew that I would still be in my first semester after about eight months of resumption. I am begging on behalf of other students for our lecturers and the government to find a common ground so that we can resume.”