Students To Suffer The Implication Of ASUU Strike -By Ishaq Bilal

The Federal Government have insisted on not paying Lecturers salary for the 6 months period that they were on strike. Although while lecturers are also adamant, stressing that they will not call off the strike if their salaries are not paid. The students are however at the receiving end of this tussle between Federal Government and ASUU.

Meanwhile, the Educational sector is different from other sectors where a number of days or period missed as well as the supposed work missed, cannot be done again. The Educational sector is one that operates with a define process of semesters and academic sessions. Each of these processes cannot be skipped, which is why even after a long strike, students will still have to continue from where they stopped before going on strike. This is the position of argument of the striking lecturers.

But the Federal Government reiteration on not paying the University Lecturers for the 6 months they were on strike is a strategy to cut down the wings of the Union for their future industrial actions.

However, the implication of this fight between these two Elephants, are the students whose supposed year of study is prolonged as well as their proposed plan for life destroyed.

If Federal Government stands it ground on the “No work, No pay policy”, then as the ASUU chairman has said, the lecturers will not cover the backlog of the 6 months they were on strike. This means that Students will have to miss a full semester. How the grading system will accommodate the lapse is what cannot ascertain now.

Both parties should consider the grass (the students) suffering from their show of dominance. The leaders of tomorrow as the students are often called now have to their mercy, the government and the lecturers. But when these two are at logger head, the coast for being better tomorrow will ultimately look gloomy and not lucid.