ASSU STRIKE AND ITS LETEST DEV. cunned from Vangard By Taye Obateru As the nation hopes for a quick resolution of the five-month old strike by the academic staff of universities, students, parents, business people and other Nigerians in Jos speak on how the strike has affected them. Like a joke, the strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is going into the sixth month. When it started on July 1, 2013, many had expected it to last only a few weeks. Many students were initially reluctant to leave school for home expecting the strike to be suspended ‘soon’. Their expectation has been dashed and the strike has dragged from weeks to months clocking almost half a year. The negotiations between the Federal Government and ASUU since the strike started is yet to result in any positive development. Although hope rose following a meeting of the ASUU leadership with a government team led by President Goodluck Jonathan, which was said to have lasted about 14 hours, certain developments seem to have compounded the situation resulting in further frustration for students, their parents and other Nigerians. File: LASU Students The major development was the death of former ASUU President, Professor Festus Iyayi, in an automobile accident on his way to the meeting of the National Executive Committee meeting of the union in Kano to deliberate on the referendum by members based on the meeting with President Jonathan. His sudden death forced ASUU to suspend the meeting for which the nation had waited expecting an end to the strike. While some claimed the meeting was suspended indefinitely, the social media was awash with speculations, mostly unfounded, that ASUU would not meet until January. The rumor aggravated the distress of all those concerned who want an end to the strike. Contrary to the speculations, however, the meeting eventually held penultimate week but the outcome was equally disappointing to many as, rather than an announcement of an end to the strike, ASUU came up with some conditions that must be met for the strike to be called off. Many Nigerians have continued to appeal to ASUU to call its members back to work because of the immediate effect of the strike on students, their parents and others, as well as the long term damage it would do to the education sector and the society at large.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 12:52:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015