THE PLIGHT OF NIGERIAN STUDENTS.

ASUU accused the federal government of insensitivity to the plight of students. 

The Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike since the 14th of February 2022. The president of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, expressed with disdain that the federal government hasn’t given in to their demands because they have no commitment to the Nigerian educational sector since their wives and children  don’t live or school  in Nigeria. 

The ASUU president also claimed that the strike is a sacrifice for generations to come. If through the industrial strike action Nigerian students can get functioning laboratories, good classrooms, multi-racial students, and so much more, then the strike is for a good cause.

The ASUU strike is not new to Nigerian government University students. The Academic staff embarked on the 2022 strike  for the following reasons:

1. The failure of the Nigerian Federal government to provide good facilities into the Universities. This lack of facilities affects both the students’ learning ability and lecturers’ teaching ability.
2. Government has failed to meet up with their promises of 2009 which includes an increase in the payment of staff belonging to ASUU.
3. ASUU also argues that the Federal government should change the payment account structure of their staff. Government introduced a Treasury Single Account which ASUU is fighting against.

Since the strike started, both ASUU and the Federal government continue to have closed door meetings hoping to come to an agreement. These meetings always end in deadlock.  

A few days ago, ASUU decided to forfeit the issue of payment account structure with the government. They claimed that they were willing to settle if the government was willing to respond to their other needs. They had another closed door meeting on the 15th of August, 2022, which ended in deadlock as usual. 

The minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said that ASUU should be held responsible for the time wasted during the six month strike. He claimed that the federal government would not pay the staff for the 6 months that they were on strike. The affected students were also challenged to take ASUU to court to sue them for damages. 

The back and forth between the Federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities is unfair to the students concerned in this situation. They are lost and confused as they don’t know the way forward. 

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