ASUU Industrial Action: Nigerian Students Bemoan Lingering Strike

Some students of Nigerian public universities have expressed frustration over the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Some of the students in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt appealed to the Federal Government to meet at least 50 per cent of ASUU demands to end the strike.

Greatness Nnamdi-Ikpo, a third year student of the University of Port Harcourt, who is studying gas engineering, said that the ongoing strike was impacting negatively on the future plans of Nigerian students.

He said although he enrolled for a five-year programme in 2017, he was still in the first semester of the third year because of ASUU constant strike and the pandemic lockdown measures put in place in the country.

He said “I am appealing to the Federal Government to put in some efforts to meet the demands of ASUU, at least 50 per cent and this will also make the lecturers not to depend on students for their upkeep.”

Similarly, Gift Nwafor, a student of the University of Calabar who studying education psychology, said that the ongoing strike had frustrated and setback her studies.

Nwafor expressed displeasure at the ongoing strike, saying that the action was leading some students into crime.

ASUU Chairman at the Abia State University, Victor Nkemdirim, attributed the strike to the non-revitalisation of public universities in the country.

Nkemdirim told newsmen that ASUU was fighting for the revitalisation of the institutions.

He said since 2009 the government has been unable to implement its agreements with ASUU.

He added that government had always reneged on the Memorandum of Understanding and the Memorandum of Action it signed with the lecturers.

He stated that since the founding of some public universities, government`s presence there had been minimal, except for projects embarked on by the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) which came about as a result of ASUU agitations.

Nkemdirim said if not for the Union’s continued struggles, most of the states and federal universities would have gone under by now.

He also recalled that ASUU had continued to oppose the Integrated Pay Roll and Personal Information System(IPPIS) , a foreign-based platform, which he said the Federal Government was servicing yearly with N7 billion.

He further explained that “This (IPPIS) platform contravenes the university autonomy which means that the council of the universities do not have the right to employ or dismiss staff.

“ASUU was asked to develop a platform that is congenial to the university system and it came up with University Transability and Accountability Solution (UTAS) which in all tests, including integrity test, scored 99.7 per cent pass mark.”