The Defence Headquarters has said that the reported activities of the Islamic State and Al – Qaeda terrorist groups in West Africa is not new .
It stated that the Nigerian security forces were conscious of their operations and had been working to contain them.
The Coordinator , Defence Media Operations , Maj. Gen. John Enenche , said this at a briefing in Abuja while reacting to the warning by the Commander , United States Special Operations Command Africa , Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson , on Tuesday .
He noted , “ Our attention is drawn to the fact that terrorists from other zones are coming here ; I think it would be good for us to be keeping records of events as they unfold .
“ For me , this is not the first time they are raising such an alarm ; the alarm is as old as maybe five or 10 years and the armed forces and the country are conscious of it.
“ When the conflict in Libya was officially declared ended , which did not end, what happened ? It was we , our NIA (National Intelligence Agency ) , state service , and all that raised the information that these people are moving.
“ Have we not captured foreigners among the people that have been terrorising us in this country?
“ So , it is just like a call to keep doing what you are doing, so the general public should know that the security agencies are on top of that one . ”
Bauchi State Governor , Bala Mohammed , has appointed Balaraba Ibrahim as the Special Assistant on Women Affairs (Unmarried ) .
This is according to a letter dated August 4 , 2020 , with reference number GO / SS /POL /S /83 and signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mohammed Baba.
The letter , which was obtained by
Sahara Reporters , read in part, “ I am pleased to convey the approval of his Excellency Sen Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed CON , the Governor of Bauchi State , for your appointment as Special Assistant, Women Affairs ( Unmarried) .
“ The appointment is based on your knowledge , experience and personal qualities of hard work, honesty and absolute loyalty . I would expect you to utilise all these qualities in facing the challenges of your office to facilitate the attainment of our collective goal and the expectation of our electorate .
“ The terms and conditions of your appointment as enunciated in the regular government policies as applicable. ”
Ibrahim is the Chairperson , Association of Divorcees in Bauchi State .
The Presidential Task Force on COVID- 19 has asked aviation authorities and airline operators to begin the process for the restart of international flights .
With the reopening of domestic airports for local flights in July after about four months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic , travellers had been in high hopes for the resumption of international flights .
The PTF National Coordinator , Sani Aliyu , during a briefing in Abuja , said the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority , the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria , and other agencies, as well as airlines , should commence the process for the resumption of international flights .
According to Aliyu , passengers would arrive three hours before flights when the country ’ s airspace finally reopens for international operations .
He said , “ Specific to air transportation , as you are aware, domestic flights have already resumed , the railway sector has also restarted. For international travel , we have made recommendations to the aviation industry to commence the process for reopening international airports provided all existing international and local Covid – 19 protocol are in place.
“ We have modified the protocol for passenger arrivals at the airports. Domestic passengers arriving at the airports are advised to arrive one hour before their flights and three hours before international flights – when this restarts . ”
The national coordinator stressed that though the government would like to restart international flights to balance health concerns and economic recovery, the government also would like to do so in a safe manner.
“ There may be additional infrastructure for some of the airports. What we want to do and we ’ ve made it very clear at the PTF is that we want to resume as soon as possible but in a safe manner and do not put at risk all that we ’ ve done to control this pandemic. Hopefully in weeks but not months, ” he added.
Also , the Minister of Aviation , Hadi Sirika , at the briefing , said the government was conscious of its decision and would like to reopen as soon as possible while working with other ministries, departments, and agencies of government .
The minister , who also lamented that thousands of jobs have been lost as a result of the pandemic , however , said international flights would resume in a safe manner but said no date has yet been fixed.
Some men has vandalised the Edo State House of Assembly and removed its roof.
According to a video shared by Channels Television , the men were seen removing the iconic legislative mace on top of the building .
The video also showed trucks offloading gravels at the entrance of the Assembly Complex while the suspected vandals trooped into the building .
This is coming barely 24 hours after the Deputy Speaker , Yekini Idiaye , was impeached by the state lawmakers .
The Speaker of the House, Frank Okiye, in an address aired via social media shortly after the impeachment of Idiaye , called on the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd . ) , to call members of his party to order.
The speaker said , “We have it on good authority, the dubious plans by the governor of Imo State , Senator Hope Uzodinma , and the stakeholders of APC in Edo State to import a fake maze to take over the Edo State House of Assembly working in cohort with the former deputy speaker who recently declared his support for the governorship candidate of APC to congregate in a separate location to illegally and violently take over the Edo State House of Assembly as brought to our notice .
“ And so , we call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria , President Muhammadu Buhari and the presidency to urgently call this governor and others working with him to execute this illegal plan to desist and allow the laws of the state to guide them.
“ The state polity is already heated up by the political tension from the various electioneering campaign . Their planned action is likened to lightening a match in an already tensed political environment which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state and may scale beyond imagination.
“ We call on Edo State people, whose mandate and interest the state legislature holds and protect, to rise against this attack and plot to subvert their will and subjugate them using external forces .
“ We urge lovers of democracy across the world and institutions that uphold democracy and value , as well as pro -democracy groups to denounce this planned illegality that seems to distract a duly constituted authority.
“ We recognize the constitutional rights of the three members of the Assembly to support the candidate of their choice but that should not distract them from coming to work to carry out the job for which they were elected and become an agent of mutiny against their own primary constituencies .
“ We are as always committed to protecting the democratic rights of our people as the legislature remains the sacred institution in the democratisation process signed by my honourable self on behalf of the Edo State House of Assembly . ”
With about six weeks to the September 19 governorship election in Edo, the political atmosphere gets turbo – charged day after day .
Governor Godwin Obaseki , who is seeking reelection on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party , will face Ize- Iyamu of the APC, and other political contenders .
Candidates applying for teaching jobs in various public schools in Oyo State are to take the mandatory Computer Based Test (CBT) from Tuesday 11, 2020.
The examination is scheduled to run from Monday through Saturday from 7am till 6pm.
The government announced the readiness of the State’s Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) to conduct the examination, warning that those who were unable to upload their credentials on TESCOM’s portal before Tuesday should not bother to write the test.
The Chairman, Oyo TESCOM, Mr. Akinade Alamu made the disclosures while responding to questions during a programme on an Ibadan based radio station.
He assures that the results of the examination will be communicated to the applicants through their registered email addresses and through SMS.
Alamu said “The examination will be starting on Tuesday, 11th August, 2020 and will run through the week till Saturday, they will be starting daily from 7am till 6pm and the results will be communicated to the applicants through the email they put in their registration and through SMS.
“No applicant’s complaints will be attended to at the CBT centers, if anybody has complaints, let them come to the TESCOM office; we wish them the best in the examination.”
The South West chapter of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria has directed all its members in the zone to henceforth , increase the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit , otherwise known as petroleum to N 150 per litre .
The official pump price had been N143 per litre.
IPMAN South- West Zonal chairman , Alhaji Dele Tajudeen, who spoke with journalists , in Abeokuta , said the directive became necessary in order to avert the planned shutdown of the filling stations across the zone .
Tajudeen said IPMAN took the decision due to a new price regime announced by the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency .
The PPPRA had increased the depot price of the product from N 133 . 72 k to N138 . 62 k without consulting with other critical stakeholders like IPMAN .
While berating the PPPRA for what he described as “ policy inconsistency ” , Tajudeen lamented that PPPRA ’ s new depot price has subjected IPMAN members to a serious dilemma .
He said after careful deliberations and consideration of many factors , IPMAN zonal Executive Committee arrived at the conclusion of increasing the pump price to N 150 rather than joining saboteurs at creating artificial scarcity of the product .
The Downstream Subsidiary of NNPC , Petroleum Products Marketing Company had on Tuesday , in a memo signed by its Manager , Sales, Mohammed Bello, fixed ex – Depot of petrol to N138 . 62 per litre with effect from August 5 , 2020 .
Tajudeen said , “After careful deliberations and consideration of many factors , the IPMAN Zonal officers hereby declared that all its members should henceforth increase their pump price to N 150 and shelve the plan of total close down of petrol stations across the South West.
“ The PPPRA is inconsistent and unorganised in dealing with the stakeholders. The normal thing to have done was to involve marketers , and other parties before announcing any increment .
“ Even after announcing the new ex -depot price, they should have fixed the pump price for marketers to prevent unnecessary debt .
“ It is very disheartening to hear that a new price regime is coming to effect , without considering the plight of marketers who bought these products at an expensive price. ”
Members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID – 19 has briefed the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd . ), on ongoing efforts to curtail further spread of coronavirus and the way forward .
They were led to the meeting that was held inside the Presidential Villa , Abuja by their chairman , Boss Mustapha , who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation .
Others at the meeting are the PTF’ s national coordinator , Sani Aliyu ; the Minister of Health , Osagie Ehanire ; and the Director- General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control , Chikwe Ihekweazu .
The meeting is coming ahead of Thursday ’ s announcement of new protocols by the task force
The clearest symptom of true madness is when a man burns down his own home stead (African Proverb).
Education in every sense is said to be one of the fundamental factors of development. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital.
However, Nigeria ’ s education is crumbling . Some even say it has crumbled . University teachers are distraught but in no mood for any compromise after years of broken promises by successive governments. The die is cast and for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU ) , it is no retreat , no surrender.
Hundreds of students in tertiary institutions across the country are currently seething with anger. Some are sulking in their respective closets, claiming they have genuine reasons to be sad – that they have been at home for a long while – some for an upward of five months simply idling away. Their nemeses are the ongoing strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the vicious effects of the rampaging Coronavirus pandemic.
Nigeria as a country has continued to persevere under the burden of bad governance, political charlatanism and, most painfully, the deleterious role of the political class. And the reason for this is simple: for the past three or four decades, those who are charged with the duty of guarding public patrimony have deliberately abrogated their responsibilities; those who occupy positions of power are parochial, insincere and incompetent. The Nigerian nation has continued to travel on reverse gear because its journey is bedeviled by untruths, deceit and thwarted dreams and desires. Honesty, honor, truth and humanistic sympathy have all but taken leave of the ruling class and the citizens have been reduced to mere playthings in the hands of the rulers. However, let me not spend much time about Nigerian leadership only, let me turn to Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as both are the main focus of my story.
The ASUU was formed in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in all of the Federal and State Universities in the country.
It is very clear to anybody with two eyes that in the year 2001 precisely, the Nigerian government signed an agreement with the union of university teachers (ASUU). The chief intention of that agreement was to fund Nigerian universities properly in order to revitalize and burnish them to international standards. But from the regime of Obasanjo to that of Yar’Ádua, to Jonathan and Buhari, it has been the same drama of sham, indifference and disdain. Promises were made but not fulfilled, negotiations began and were stopped only to begin again and stop. For the past two decades, no Nigerian leader has dealt with the ASUU- FGN agreement seriously, sincerely and honorably. From 2001 to date, the rot in the university system has also continued unhindered; from 2001 to date the university teachers have embarked on several warning strikes and an indefinite strike all in an attempt to press the Nigerian government to tread the path of honor by respecting its promises. Now, as I write presently, Nigerian university teachers have embarked on an indefinite strike since March, 2020 for the same reasons: adequate and proper funding of Nigerian universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances and University autonomy among others.
This time, it is over the move by the federal government towards ensuring that all its workers, including lecturers in federal universities, are enrolled under the unified salary scheme – Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS). But we consider it a shame that ASUU would continue to blackmail the federal government on an issue bordering on transparency and accountability.
The federal government had conceptualised IPPIS in 2006 to centralise the payment of salaries of workers with a view to detecting fraud. Since then, the university lecturers have refused to be enrolled in the programme. At various times, there were interventions by the leadership of the National Assembly prevailing on the lecturers to dialogue with the federal government on the issue. While there were indeed negotiations, the decision by ASUU to insist on not complying with IPPIS remains the sticking point. Except ASUU members have something to hide, they should be at the forefront of supporting the introduction of digital payrolls in the public service since it has helped to reduce the fraud of multiple payments to ghost workers. The union cannot be an advocate of transparency and accountability only when it concerns others in the public sector.
Specifically, the mission of IPPIS is to pay FGN employees on – time and accurately within statutory and contractual obligations IPPIS Vision is to have a centralised payroll system that meet the needs of FGN employees and helps the Government to plan and manage payroll budget by ensuring proper control. Even as we are made aware of the aforementioned , another plank of the debate against the continuation or implementation of the IPPIS in the Federal University system as canvassed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities is that the scheme has been hijacked by some forces bent on perpetuating fraud. The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU ) described the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a “ tunnel created to siphon government resources . ” In a statement recently in Akure , the ASUU branch chairman , Federal University of Technology , Akure ( FUTA) , Dr . Olayinka Awopetu, claimed IPPIS was “ a weapon of fraud and corruption. ”
For me, I think this criticism of Academic Staff Union of Universities can be likened to attempting to throw the baby with the bathwater.
Indeed, as ASUU continues to oppose IPPIS, pertinent questions remain unanswered. What really is the basis of the fear of the lecturers? Is it because it will block the opportunity of lecturing in more than one university and drawing salaries from more than one university, as some commentators have suggested? These are the issues the leadership of the university academic union needs to ponder and remember the saying that he who goes to equity must go with clean hands. While nothing stops academics as experts in designated fields from offering their services to multiple universities, such services must not violate their contracts with their primary employers.
ASUU should also consider the fact that strike should not be its first resort on any matter. The hurried academic calendars, following the end of industrial actions, allow for very little attention to serious studies, or research. That is why our public universities have continued to go down the ladder of academic ranking, even among their peers in Africa. The leadership of the union should reflect on the pains Nigerian students have been going through in recent years. Those past strikes resulted in monumental loss to the nation’s university system as well as the economy.
The university lecturers should not add to the myriad of problems facing the country. Besides, it should worry the current leadership of ASUU that a once vibrant organisation that set agenda for national discourse in its heyday has degenerated into a strike-obsessed trade union that does not want to be accountable to the people. University lecturers are not above accountability. Their members must submit to IPPIS.
Lamentably, ASUU has earned the wrath of the Nigerian public as an intransigent, strike-prone and insensitive union for embarking on strikes to draw attention to the problems of university education in Nigeria. This kind of attitude is not surprising, it is only amazing. Here in Nigeria, the irony of strike is that strike is the only language the Nigerian government can understand. Again, many unsuspecting members of the Nigerian public think that ASUU strikes are meant to demand for higher pay or salaries. But this is the grossest falsehood. One of the strategies Nigerian governments (past and present) have adopted, though without success, to punish and muzzle ASUU has been the stoppage of salaries. Obasanjo’s regime stopped ASUU salaries for close to eight months, that of Jonathan stopped ASUU salaries for six months and the Buhari government has done that for five months. The stoppage of salaries is usually a deliberate ploy to make ASUU hungry and miserable so that the Union will cower at the negotiating table. But ASUU is a union that has been hardened by hunger and it can always wear courage like a shield.
It is yet to be seen how the crisis will be finally resolved. But in the meantime, students , their parents , and guardians are the worst-hit as ASUU and the government spar over an agreement that is a decade-long .
As a result of this strike, most students have secured jobs or other means of generating money and does not wish the strike to be called off soon, some have even planned not returning to classroom as the salary they now receive is large and they are not sure of getting such jobs after school.
The strike has caused many to be ideal, like the popular saying: “an ideal man is the devil’s workshop.”
During the period of strike, students, as a result of their idleness and frustration, engage in deviant behavior like robbery, arson, rape, touting and constitute nuisance to the society. When they are apprehended, their academics are abruptly truncated. In the years past, the country had been made to suffer immense loss of brains to other countries. It is still happening, as a result of their search for greener pastures. With this marginal loss, few remaining ones are inadequate to build up the academic performance of the students (Obasanjo, 2000).
Learning in Universities has been made irregular and this may have strong impact on the students as students-may have forgotten what they have learnt before the disruption of an academic session upon their resumption to school. Memory is lost if what is being learnt is not reactivated over time. Statistical reports have shown that majority of failures in University are recorded in examinations taken immediately after students return from a long break. The situation witnessed in the University academics has resulted in the turning out of half-baked graduates into the labor market. These half-baked produced cannot live up to expectation in their various chosen professions. This is as a result of poor learning necessitated by poor services from aggrieved lecturers. Students have developed lack of interest in academics because of the usual long stay away from school; instead they indulge in frivolous activities (Adeniran, 2000). Contributory to this is the fact that the condition in which many of these students learn in some of the university is deplorable.
Most parents and students have lost interest in the educational system in Nigeria, as those who can afford education outside the country have started making moves towards it. Some soon to be parents have vowed that their children will not school in this system.
Some parents who has provided the basic amenities for their kids on campus will go through the stress of re-providing, as most student have consumed their resources, while some other perishables will perish as a result of the extension. Failure to re-provide on the part of the parents will result in the kids suffering during the remaining period of the semester should the strike be called off.
It has been proven that students perform less in examinations after returning from a strike period. Most student do not read during strike periods, while others tend to forget key points from lectures as a result of the long wait between lectures and examinations.
The rich who can afford private varsities sends their kids there, where their academic calendar in unaffected, the poor who cannot afford it tends to spend more years on campus as a result of strike, this make the rich kids graduate before the poor kids and as a result of this be ahead in some aspects of life.
Pregnancy rate as well as abortion rate among students have increased significantly. Many students still around campus vicinity are seen swotting with the opposite sex as this period of no academic activities make it possible for them to bond better.
A Plea to ASUU and FG; Lets Save The Future of Our Nigerian Students
EXCERPT:
Thisday(Doki report)
The Sun report
Guardian Newspaper
Wikipedia
nairaproject.com ; steemit.com
The clearest symptom of true madness is when a man burns down his own home stead (African Proverb).
Education in every sense is said to be one of the fundamental factors of development. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital.
However, Nigeria ’ s education is crumbling . Some even say it has crumbled . University teachers are distraught but in no mood for any compromise after years of broken promises by successive governments. The die is cast and for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU ) , it is no retreat , no surrender.
Hundreds of students in tertiary institutions across the country are currently seething with anger. Some are sulking in their respective closets, claiming they have genuine reasons to be sad – that they have been at home for a long while – some for an upward of five months simply idling away. Their nemeses are the ongoing strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the vicious effects of the rampaging Coronavirus pandemic.
Nigeria as a country has continued to persevere under the burden of bad governance, political charlatanism and, most painfully, the deleterious role of the political class. And the reason for this is simple: for the past three or four decades, those who are charged with the duty of guarding public patrimony have deliberately abrogated their responsibilities; those who occupy positions of power are parochial, insincere and incompetent. The Nigerian nation has continued to travel on reverse gear because its journey is bedeviled by untruths, deceit and thwarted dreams and desires. Honesty, honor, truth and humanistic sympathy have all but taken leave of the ruling class and the citizens have been reduced to mere playthings in the hands of the rulers. However, let me not spend much time about Nigerian leadership only, let me turn to Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as both are the main focus of my story.
The ASUU was formed in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in all of the Federal and State Universities in the country.
It is very clear to anybody with two eyes that in the year 2001 precisely, the Nigerian government signed an agreement with the union of university teachers (ASUU). The chief intention of that agreement was to fund Nigerian universities properly in order to revitalize and burnish them to international standards. But from the regime of Obasanjo to that of Yar’Ádua, to Jonathan and Buhari, it has been the same drama of sham, indifference and disdain. Promises were made but not fulfilled, negotiations began and were stopped only to begin again and stop. For the past two decades, no Nigerian leader has dealt with the ASUU- FGN agreement seriously, sincerely and honorably. From 2001 to date, the rot in the university system has also continued unhindered; from 2001 to date the university teachers have embarked on several warning strikes and an indefinite strike all in an attempt to press the Nigerian government to tread the path of honor by respecting its promises. Now, as I write presently, Nigerian university teachers have embarked on an indefinite strike since March, 2020 for the same reasons: adequate and proper funding of Nigerian universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances and University autonomy among others.
This time, it is over the move by the federal government towards ensuring that all its workers, including lecturers in federal universities, are enrolled under the unified salary scheme – Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS). But we consider it a shame that ASUU would continue to blackmail the federal government on an issue bordering on transparency and accountability.
The federal government had conceptualised IPPIS in 2006 to centralise the payment of salaries of workers with a view to detecting fraud. Since then, the university lecturers have refused to be enrolled in the programme. At various times, there were interventions by the leadership of the National Assembly prevailing on the lecturers to dialogue with the federal government on the issue. While there were indeed negotiations, the decision by ASUU to insist on not complying with IPPIS remains the sticking point. Except ASUU members have something to hide, they should be at the forefront of supporting the introduction of digital payrolls in the public service since it has helped to reduce the fraud of multiple payments to ghost workers. The union cannot be an advocate of transparency and accountability only when it concerns others in the public sector.
Specifically, the mission of IPPIS is to pay FGN employees on – time and accurately within statutory and contractual obligations IPPIS Vision is to have a centralised payroll system that meet the needs of FGN employees and helps the Government to plan and manage payroll budget by ensuring proper control. Even as we are made aware of the aforementioned , another plank of the debate against the continuation or implementation of the IPPIS in the Federal University system as canvassed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities is that the scheme has been hijacked by some forces bent on perpetuating fraud. The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU ) described the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a “ tunnel created to siphon government resources . ” In a statement recently in Akure , the ASUU branch chairman , Federal University of Technology , Akure ( FUTA) , Dr . Olayinka Awopetu, claimed IPPIS was “ a weapon of fraud and corruption. ”
For me, I think this criticism of Academic Staff Union of Universities can be likened to attempting to throw the baby with the bathwater.
Indeed, as ASUU continues to oppose IPPIS, pertinent questions remain unanswered. What really is the basis of the fear of the lecturers? Is it because it will block the opportunity of lecturing in more than one university and drawing salaries from more than one university, as some commentators have suggested? These are the issues the leadership of the university academic union needs to ponder and remember the saying that he who goes to equity must go with clean hands. While nothing stops academics as experts in designated fields from offering their services to multiple universities, such services must not violate their contracts with their primary employers.
ASUU should also consider the fact that strike should not be its first resort on any matter. The hurried academic calendars, following the end of industrial actions, allow for very little attention to serious studies, or research. That is why our public universities have continued to go down the ladder of academic ranking, even among their peers in Africa. The leadership of the union should reflect on the pains Nigerian students have been going through in recent years. Those past strikes resulted in monumental loss to the nation’s university system as well as the economy.
The university lecturers should not add to the myriad of problems facing the country. Besides, it should worry the current leadership of ASUU that a once vibrant organisation that set agenda for national discourse in its heyday has degenerated into a strike-obsessed trade union that does not want to be accountable to the people. University lecturers are not above accountability. Their members must submit to IPPIS.
Lamentably, ASUU has earned the wrath of the Nigerian public as an intransigent, strike-prone and insensitive union for embarking on strikes to draw attention to the problems of university education in Nigeria. This kind of attitude is not surprising, it is only amazing. Here in Nigeria, the irony of strike is that strike is the only language the Nigerian government can understand. Again, many unsuspecting members of the Nigerian public think that ASUU strikes are meant to demand for higher pay or salaries. But this is the grossest falsehood. One of the strategies Nigerian governments (past and present) have adopted, though without success, to punish and muzzle ASUU has been the stoppage of salaries. Obasanjo’s regime stopped ASUU salaries for close to eight months, that of Jonathan stopped ASUU salaries for six months and the Buhari government has done that for five months. The stoppage of salaries is usually a deliberate ploy to make ASUU hungry and miserable so that the Union will cower at the negotiating table. But ASUU is a union that has been hardened by hunger and it can always wear courage like a shield.
It is yet to be seen how the crisis will be finally resolved. But in the meantime, students , their parents , and guardians are the worst-hit as ASUU and the government spar over an agreement that is a decade-long .
As a result of this strike, most students have secured jobs or other means of generating money and does not wish the strike to be called off soon, some have even planned not returning to classroom as the salary they now receive is large and they are not sure of getting such jobs after school.
The strike has caused many to be ideal, like the popular saying: “an ideal man is the devil’s workshop.”
During the period of strike, students, as a result of their idleness and frustration, engage in deviant behavior like robbery, arson, rape, touting and constitute nuisance to the society. When they are apprehended, their academics are abruptly truncated. In the years past, the country had been made to suffer immense loss of brains to other countries. It is still happening, as a result of their search for greener pastures. With this marginal loss, few remaining ones are inadequate to build up the academic performance of the students (Obasanjo, 2000).
Learning in Universities has been made irregular and this may have strong impact on the students as students-may have forgotten what they have learnt before the disruption of an academic session upon their resumption to school. Memory is lost if what is being learnt is not reactivated over time. Statistical reports have shown that majority of failures in University are recorded in examinations taken immediately after students return from a long break. The situation witnessed in the University academics has resulted in the turning out of half-baked graduates into the labor market. These half-baked produced cannot live up to expectation in their various chosen professions. This is as a result of poor learning necessitated by poor services from aggrieved lecturers. Students have developed lack of interest in academics because of the usual long stay away from school; instead they indulge in frivolous activities (Adeniran, 2000). Contributory to this is the fact that the condition in which many of these students learn in some of the university is deplorable.
Most parents and students have lost interest in the educational system in Nigeria, as those who can afford education outside the country have started making moves towards it. Some soon to be parents have vowed that their children will not school in this system.
Some parents who has provided the basic amenities for their kids on campus will go through the stress of re-providing, as most student have consumed their resources, while some other perishables will perish as a result of the extension. Failure to re-provide on the part of the parents will result in the kids suffering during the remaining period of the semester should the strike be called off.
It has been proven that students perform less in examinations after returning from a strike period. Most student do not read during strike periods, while others tend to forget key points from lectures as a result of the long wait between lectures and examinations.
The rich who can afford private varsities sends their kids there, where their academic calendar in unaffected, the poor who cannot afford it tends to spend more years on campus as a result of strike, this make the rich kids graduate before the poor kids and as a result of this be ahead in some aspects of life.
Pregnancy rate as well as abortion rate among students have increased significantly. Many students still around campus vicinity are seen swotting with the opposite sex as this period of no academic activities make it possible for them to bond better.
A Plea to ASUU and FG; Lets Save The Future of Our Nigerian Students
EXCERPT:
Thisday(Doki report)
The Sun report
Guardian Newspaper
Wikipedia
nairaproject.com ; steemit.com
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