ASUU strike: a glimpse into the future of many Nigerian students

By Francis Ikuerowo

The strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities entered its 143rd day on Thursday (today). In contrast, the strike declared by the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and other Allied Institutions, which began on March 25, 2022, also entered the 71st day today. As the strike lingers, the future of many Nigerian students remains bleak. Although many students have appeared to forge ahead with their lives; learning a skill or the other, interning in a corporate organization, trying to adapt, survive or be alive, a lot of others have become erring errand men-boys and women-girls at home, yet it is essential to remind ourselves of one truth this strike portends: this strike has paraded before students a glimpse of how their future would look like after graduation. I envisage it as a flash of their future, our future.

When this strike action first began in February, many students thought it wouldn’t last double a fortnight or more. And when it persisted, well-meaning individuals online and offline started encouraging, admonishing and beseeching students to pick up a skill to learn, to do something with their lives, and more especially to join tech because tech, as a popularly held truth, is the future. These well-meaning individuals meant well, as much as many students can see. However, I believe their intentions are firmly rooted in the belief that our university education is not sufficient, or they seem to be telling us that public university education is a complete waste of time and efforts–devoid of human capacity and bereft of the 21st-century skills needed in today’s labour market. Therefore, they encouraged students to avail themselves of this period to learn the requisite skills for the labour market, so that they can be well or better equipped for the labour market.

After more than four months of sitting at home or just being alive for some students– without schooling, without being inundated with school work, assignments, and projects, and without enjoying the thrill of being students– many of them have learnt the pains of living and surviving by themselves. Students, especially final-year students, must have assessed their skills and competencies and some may have become incredibly honest with themselves about these assessments. They have now got the privilege and opportunity to learn from scratch those skills that they are deficient in or areas where they need to grow and improve. It might as well be safe to believe that some of these students are now working in a mini labour market, a microcosm of the bigger market out there. The implication of this is that, after the strike, some students may resume just to get their degrees as a backup because they have found what they want to do with their lives and they are already doing well for themselves. It is not going to be the same reality they were living in before the strike.

With the cessation of regular allowances and dearth of pocket money, some students now reluctantly stay at home with their parents, many of whom are not financially fit by themselves, while other students have refused to go home. This lingering ASUU strike has, therefore, reawakened some consciousness in these students: that of being left alone or solely alone to cater for their needs. This realization is beginning to dawn on many students and it has prompted a sixty-four thousand dollar question: is this how life will be after graduation? Perhaps.

Being driven by this realization, these students are now working on getting money and learning how to save and manage the little they earn. They are learning some personal finance skills all by themselves because someday, the strike will be over and they will all graduate to face these realities again. But one thing is palpable: they have already been exposed to these realities over and over again due to ASUU’s perennial strike, and as an unintended consequence, they will have been furnished with the right motivations and mindsets for survival upon their eventual graduation.

As depressing, distressing, and heart-rending this strike may have been, particularly for students who need their transcripts for future education and scholarship and students whose lives depend solely on education, because honestly, university education was supposed to provide a means for a decent life; students must learn to adapt and move ahead with their lives, as hard as this can be. When life (insert Federal Government) gives you lemons, make lemonade because it is even dangerous to accept defeat or remain idle in the face of adversity because this strike is an adversity that plagues us all.

In conclusion, it is evident that this country, Nigeria has failed us in many areas and is still failing us all, holding the future of many, many students hanging in the balance. These are hard times for many of us students, and the Federal Government does not give two hoots about us. Despite all this, I have come to accept that you get to a stage in the course of your life where you cannot continue blaming anyone for your situation—not your parents, nor your background, environment, or the government. This is what I call personal responsibility. You own your destiny in your own hands; you only can make or mar it by what you do or refuse to do.