by Habeeb Lanlehin
When Elin Nordegren said Education is one thing no one can take away from you he was an alien to Nigeria’s education system; a system that shuts down schools for months without a noteworthy cause such as war, civil unrest, natural disasters (flooding) etc.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was founded in 1978 and since then had had several standoffs with the government for a myriad of reasons ranging from better conditions of service, better pay, revitalization of public universities, payment platform and a lot more.
The most recent of these standoffs led to universities being shut down for 8 months- 14 February to 14 October 2022.
LIFE DURING THE STRIKE
After being forced out of school, what was the fate of Nigerian students? While huge noises were bordering on students learning vocational/online skills to get busy during the strike, did the students take the route or how were students able to cope with the sickening feeling of watching their mates in private universities go to school and progress while they remained fixed to a spot, stuck.
Ayotomiwa AyoElesho, a student from the Department of Political Science at the premier University of Ibadan had an “eventful strike”.
In an interview session with Ayo Elesho, he opined he was volunteering for a French-based non-profit organisation, “The indigenous” before the prolonged strike. He volunteered for four months and his volunteering action runs into the strike.
With classes on hold, he had ample time to focus on his NGO, Homeless, not Hopeless Nigeria. Properly utilizing his time, he set the trajectory for the organization to run and by August, he organized a 6km sensitization walk with his members.
However, all his energy was not focused on volunteering and running his NGO, he also took out time to hone his writing skills and enter essay competitions. On the 7th of September 2022, he was announced as the winner of the 6th edition of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board Annual Undergraduate Essay Competition (NCDMB) and was privileged to walk away with a prize of one million naira and a lot of accolades.
Keeping the same energy, he once again emerge as one of the top finalists in the NIMASSA essay competition on the 29th of September 2022 and gets to walk with a juicy cash prize.
The story was, however, different with Agnes (not real name). Agnes is a student at the University of Ibadan. She had nothing interesting or exciting to say about the strike as she felt frustrated throughout the period.
“I felt like I was drowning” she remarked as she went on to describe how terrible she felt during the period. Her statement implies that she only wants to go to school, graduate and move on to another phase of life.
Questioned why she didn’t learn any skill either vocational or digital she explained that digital skills are not her forte and due to “logistics” she could not apply for the vocational skill she was interested in learning.
Emmanuel (not real name) was unbothered when questioned, in his word he found a remote job during the period and without classes and school stress he had all the time he needed to divert all his energy into working and making a real impression by getting all his tasks done before deadlines.
As expected, students had various experiences and different tales to tell, but are the experiences worth getting shut out of school for eight months?
But beyond that, another burning question is, is this finally the end to the prevalent ASUU strikes?
