Students of the University of Nigeria (UNN), Enugu Campus, have appealed to the Federal Government to honour the agreement it entered into with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for the sake of students’ future.
A cross-section of the students, which spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Tuesday, said the strike would affect their academic timetable negatively.
According to the students, the strike will affect our possible dates of graduation and chances of gaining employment thereafter.
ASUU declared a four-week warning strike on Monday to compel the government to honour its Memorandum of Understanding with it.
Mr Clinton Michael, the Public Relations Officer, Faculty of Environmental Studies’ Student’s Association, said the strike had loomed for a long time.
“ASUU has waited long for the government to act with regards to its agreement after the last 10 months’ strike.
“The strike is not good for students because we are going to be worse hit.
“For instance, a student studying a five-year course would end up spending more years.
“Besides, employment in Nigeria is another serious issue. Many companies only employ job seekers below the age of 30,” Michael said.
Mr Vincent Eze in the Department of Geometric Survey said an average student was desirous to graduate early enough to enable him to face the wider society.
Eze said the current ASUU action might become an obstacle to students’ set goals, looking back at the previous strikes in the country.
“The way I see the FG-ASUU saga, the current strike would not end in four weeks and that will further distort the academic calendar.
“It is a problem that leads to another and this strike may expose youths to social vices and criminalities.
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“Government should obey its agreement with ASUU for our good and good of the country to arrest youth restiveness.
“ASUU members are parents and they depend on their salary for their children’s upkeep, so federal government should urgently do something about this,” Eze said.
Another student, Dickson Kalu, faulted ASUU for embarking on another warning strike, saying it would be ineffective.
Kalu feared that government would not listen to the union’s demand because the effect of the action would only be felt by the students and their parents, not the government.
He argued that most government functionaries had their children studying in private universities in the country and abroad.
“We are the ones to bear the brunt of the strike, in terms of lectures. No doubt, examinations will be rushed by lecturers after the strike,” he said.
He opined that the warning strike should extend beyond four weeks to pressure the government to honour its agreement.
Kalu said, “I am a 200 level student, I witnessed strikes before and my advice to ASUU is that it should pressure the government more than it is doing right now.
“Government knows what it is doing, what it is supposed to do and the failure to do it is what led to this warning strike.”
Another student from the Nsukka campus of UNN, Miss Victoria Egeonu, said the strike came at the wrong time and would hurt the students most.
“Many public universities in the country are lagging behind, trying to catch up with the academic calendar.
“This strike should have been averted,” Egeonu said, adding that the government needed to honour its agreement with ASUU to ensure that the action did not go beyond the four weeks. (NAN)
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