By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
With the university lecturers and the allied bodies in the educational institutions in Nigeria up in arms with the Federal Government over their welfare and poor state of the learning environment in the institutions, students and parents are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently resolve the issues once and for all.
As at the last count, two more important unions in Nigeria’s educational institutions, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) have joined the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in nationwide strike.
Only this Monday, SSANU and NASU commenced two-week warning strike through a
memorandum by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) which was signed by SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, titled; “Commencement of Two-Week Warning Strike.”
This situation has grounded educational activities in all the universities or higher institutions in Nigeria with hapless students and parents being the worst for the long drawn battles between the warring parties.
Sadly, both the Federal Ministry of Education and their counterpart, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity have remained silent over the demands of ASUU, SSANU and NASU leaving the students and parents to hold the short end of the stick.
Lamenting over the incessant strikes in the Nigerian public universities, Miss Annabel Ngozika Ugochukwu, a 400 Level student of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture (MOUA)
and Adewale Ali-Balogun, a final year student of Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) have decried the present situation which have left them in a quagmire.
According to them, they are tired of paying all the fees including schools, accommodation, departmental and others only to loiter about in the campuses as lectures are stalled because of strikes by lecturers.
They also complained that these strikes have exposed them to the danger of always being on the road traveling back and forth just as some of them said they are not getting younger and would like to finish their studies, go for service and get on with their lives.
Also, Engineer Aidonwase John Terve whose two children are students of the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, (FUAM)
and Mrs. Mojisola Abigail Olatoye who has her son in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun state, are not happy with the lingering issues between the Federal Government and the university lecturers and their affiliate bodies.
“It is a pity that the Federal Ministry of Education that has the statutory responsibility to interface with the striking university lecturers and workers have remained unperturbed. Is it a crime to put our children in public universities? Not every Nigerian has the financial resources to put our children in private universities or send them abroad for studies”, argued Olatoye.
Others who spoke to Prompt News on the condition of anonymity accused government and its agencies of insincerity by not giving adequate attention to the complaints of the university lecturers and workers hence the situation has festered for a long time.
As at the time of this report, there are no indications that ASUU, SSANU and NASU strikes have received any significant attention from the government with the Federal Ministry of Education and Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity mum over the shut down of tertiary institutions in Nigeria by the unions.
Like ASUU, SSANU and NASU said that they embarked on strike following what they described as the failure of the Nigerian government to react to its letter earlier issued threatening to down tools.
The strike which took effect by midnight of Sunday, March 27, has further compound the situation across the Nigerian university campuses as the teaching staff under ASUU are already in the second week of their three-month initial strike leaving students and parents stranded with its resultant more expenditure to evacuate their children from the shut campuses nationwide.
