ASUU STRIKE: FINAL YEAR STUDENTS ARE MOST AFFECTED BY VALENTINE UCHEDILI

ASUU strike and its effect on us (Students)
It was on the 1st of july that ASUU announced embarking on a 100days strike, this was almost immediately ASUP resumed from Strike that...

lasted for 81days. When I heard about this ASUU embarking on strike, I
said to myself that the FG cannot allow this strike to last up to 100
days as they so proposed. Unizik initially didn't comply to the strike
fully as many departments commenced and continued with their exams and
students rejoicing that they were exempted from the strike. Now, the
whole story has changed completely. Unizik is now totally involved as
the lecturers didn't resume for the new session even as their salaries
were seized by the management in a course to force them back to
classrooms. However, this lingering unending strike has not yet gotten
an end date, as ASUU vowed that unless the FG executes to the last,
the agreement they made with them in 2009.
Now let's assume that the FG is broke and is still making preparations
for the demands of ASUU. The latest hint is that the demands of ASUU
has been included in the 2014 budget. This means that the ASUU strike
will still hold till 2014, not only till 2014 but till the FG starts
implementing the 2014 budget and to when it gets to meeting the ASUU
demands in the course of implementing the budget.

The effects are as follows;
1. The final year students are the most affected. This is because, the
strike automatically disqualified them from joining the Batch A of the
NYSC programme. Thus, giving them unnecessary more months to sit and
do virtually nothing at home. Without NYSC certificate, a graduate
cannot get a good job in Nigeria. NYSC certificate has been considered
a must-have before you would be considered for a job in Nigeria. So
without this certificate, you cannot get a good part-time job you can
be doing for the mean time before the Batch B of the NYSC programme's
list is out. This will eventually mean you would just sit at home and
waste the whole months for nothing.

2. It has disrupted the academic calendar of unizik that has been
stable for over 10years. Unizik has been known as a Strike-free
institution for long now, this hope was dashed in the mud when unizik
finally joined ASUU - the great striker. It is called bad-luck because
it was just few months after they joined ASUU, that ASUU went haywire
and decided to embark on an unending strike. This made the management
regret why on earth they joined ASUU at this time, but unfortunately,
it is a no-going-back deal.

3. Most students live outside the campus and they rented their
accommodation at various high costs. I will say their rent is wasting
as their landlords are not been negotiated with too, by the ASUU and
the FG negotiation on-going. This will mean the students, especially
the finalists, to pay extra rent that may not be useful to them again
after their exams.

4. The management in the course to meet up with the academic calendar,
will order the rush of lectures and exams, project defense, Industrial
Training (IT) defense, marking and recording of exams etc. This is the
most vital effect this strike will have on students. This will
introduce errors and assumptions on exams and defenses. When the
lecturers rush their course outline, they will only recommend we read
up the rest, as they might have just told us the meaning,
characteristics and functions(plus formulas in the case of a
calculating course) of the course-subject. This will mean we'll read
tirelessly in order to cover the course outline for the lecturers, if
not, you will stand a chance of just knowing the answer to the exam
number one (No. 1) of the course and apparently returning next year to
re-write the course as reference. The pressure that the management
will mount on the lecturers will make them resort to no other option
than to skip some of the outlines as they might not be able to finish
up the whole outline in a limited time space. This will make the
students understand only but a little of the course's objectives. In
terms of marking and recording of exams, in the course to be fast in
marking and recording the exam, the lecturers are likely to make
mistakes that will affect students adversely.
These are only but a few effects this strike will accord students in
unizik. There are many more disadvantages that were not listed here,
and believe me, the benefits of this strike are not worthy of any of
these adverse effects on us. Only God Help Us.