It is often said that when two elephant fight, the grass suffers, its nor longer a new, in Nigeria on the fight between The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU) and the Federal Government(FG). Just to flash back, I can recall that in 2012, the was an industrial action that took place, it journeyed into 2013, That was my own experience and it lasted for about six (6) month, Its was not a healthy experience, and i actually never prayed for my children to have one in their school days.
I can still remember how, me and my colleges will gather for many nights, praying for God to touch their heart and make them feel the pains we were going through. I studied Engineering and we all know in our structure, its a five years program, In this 5 years, we were all paying our house rents as well as our basic bills. Many of us were self sponsored while a few others were gathered for by relatives and guidance, its was not easy because after the six month industrial action, some of my colleges did not return to school again and many, straight way entered the family way, which made it difficult for them to resume back to continue their study.
Many of my colleges under that same atmosphere, started up business, and on the hustling journey they lost their life, By the time we returned back to school, the number had so reduce drastically, with no legitimate explanation.
Again just before the almighty Pandemic, we also had a share of the national cake on the campuses, thanks God that the strike action also ended after the lockdown, for that one, the impact of the pandemic, overwhelmed it and as a result we did not really feel the effect of the strike action in 2019 and 2020.
The most undoing issue on the subject matter, is the fact that, the same issue that has been deliberated for the past 12 years is still the same reason the action is coming again, A friend ask me, a few day ago, is it that the federal Government don't have what it takes to solve the problem once and for all?, I did not need to pray before giving my candid answer to the question. I said to the guy that am sure the FG has what it takes to solve the issue at once but the prefer to come on air and manipulate lies for us, but then we know that their children are not in the public universities and as such they are not affected, so who cares?.
I really want an answer to this question, and a candid one, if our politician and leaders, were the university teachers, will they have accepted to be working while their arias are pending? and if that had happened, what would have been their reaction and a possible way forward.
Now again, our young people are back home, ASSU said it will be one month warning action but am asking, if for the past years the FG has refuse to attend to their cry, will it be possible at this moment of political transition, when they are all trying to cross their T's and dot their I's, of all figures to have a clean sheet before transition.
Please we are pleading because our younger once are really suffering and if it goes this way, what happened in 2013 after the strike will definitely happen again. please the FG should at least for once listen to the cry of somebody's father and mother, wife and Husband, and we should all remember that we need each other to survive. I came in peace, thanks for having me. 