A cross section of some Nigerian students have expressed fears over another round of strike action as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) begins it emergency meeting in Abuja following fresh issues of the payment of half salaries it’s members.
Many students expressed fears stating that the issue about the payment of half salaries to lecturers has created fears among students because it wil be unfortunate if the union begins another round of strike barely one month after resuming its eight-month industrial action.
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iBrandtv gathered that ASUU had commenced its emergency meeting in Abuja this afternoon, the outcome of the meeting will once again determine the fate of Federal university students in the country.
However, in the midst of their agitation, some branches of the academic body like the University of Jos (UNIJOS), and the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife have given a sit-at-home order to its members, while other chapters have promised to follow the decision from today’s NEC meeting.
Available reports revealed that the eight-month-old strike had disrupted the schedule of all 400 level students from public universities who did their industrial training, as they cannot resume studies with their colleagues in the private sector until March 2023.
However, a cross-section of students from the Federal University, Lokoja (FUL), told the Daily Post that they are anxious about the results of ASUU’s NEC meeting because its crucial to the tertiary educational development or otherwise of the sector.
The students, who bemoaned how eight months of their academic year have been wasted pleaded with the federal government to overlook whatever might have transpired in the period of the eight months strike and pay their lectures to avert another strike.
One of the students identified as Naomi Abraham said “We cannot afford to go through another strike by ASUU again, in view of the fact that students in public universities have lost eight months of academic activities with the sour effects on our educational pursuit.”
Another student Christopher Alli, pleaded with all relevant stakeholders and the federal government to pay their lecturers, so that all the back and forth in the last eight won’t be in vain.
“They need to go back with and appeal to the federal government to pay our lecturers so that we can graduate, serve the nation for one year NYSC and look for the scarce white-collar job or go into business,” Alli added.
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For Abubakar Abdullahi, he also pleaded with the government to honour its promise; “I am appealing to the federal government to pay university lecturers their normal salaries, because it was based on the agreement that their eight months salaries, representing the periods the strike lasted would be paid that the lecturers suspended the strike.
“For the sake of students and the future of Nigerian university education, I strongly believe that the government could over look whatever must have been the misgiving arising from the strike and pay the university lecturers concerned, for peace to reign supreme in our university system,” Abdullahi submitted.
