Reactions from host communities, business operators and lecturers have continued to trail the indefinite strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Stakeholders, who spoke with our correspondents, decried the announcement by the union, urging the Federal Government to implement its demands. BOLA OLAJUWON,  BISI OLANIYI, SOUTHSOUTH BUREAU CHIEF, NWANOSIKE ONU, AWKA,  EMMA ELEKWA, ONITSHA, KOLADE ADEYEMI, JOS, TOBA ADEDEJI, OSOGBO, ADEKUNLE JIMOH, ILORIN, YINKA ADENIRAN, IBADAN, DAMOLA KOLA-DARE, AUGUSTINE OKEZIE, KATSINA, UJA EMMANUEL,  MAKURDI, SUNNY NWANKWO, UMUAHIA,  AND ONIMISI ALAO, YOLA report.

The declaration by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) last Monday to make its ongoing strike  indefinite has attracted reactions from its members and the  public.

The union declared that it took the step because the government had not met any of its demands that prompted the initial strike on February 14.

Its decision, according to a statement by the union’s President, Emmanuel Osodeke, was the outcome of an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the University of Abuja between Sunday and Monday.

The union noted that its strike is a measure to save the public universities from collapse, which the union linked to neglect by past and current administrations.

Osodeke said the union had experienced a lot of deceit at the highest level in the last five and half years, saying the Federal Government engaged ASUU in fruitless and unending negotiations without a display of utmost concern.

Fedral and some state universities have been on strike since February 14 as ASUU declared one-month warning industrial action over unresolved issues with the government.

A month after the lecturers withdrew their services, the non-teaching staff also commenced their strike over some demands they claimed the government was unable to meet.

The Senior Staff Union of Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT)  join suit.

While the three non-teaching staff unions suspended their strikes after the government made some offers to them, ASUU has extended its  own.

Some of the contentious issues that led to ASUU strike are: non-release of revitalisation fund, non-payment of earned allowance (or earned academic allowance), renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement and the release of white paper for visitation panel.

Others are: the non-payment of minimum wage arrears and the alleged inconsistency occasioned by the use of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

But, it is often said when two elephants fight, the grasses suffer. With the declaration of the strike as indefinite, the survival of the university host communities and operators of businesses on campus is becoming precarious, according to stakeholders.

From the accounts of lecturers too, many of them did not know how to feed their families, no thanks to the non-payment of their salaries for six months. It was also alleged that some lecturers have died during the strike.

Our correspondents spoke with key stakeholders and also visited university campuses.

PTA leader:  the situation is sad

In a chat with The Nation, former Zonal Coordinator of Parent-Teacher Association and now Parents Forum Chairman, Lagos State District 4, Elder Olusoji Adams, described the situation as sad.

He said: “I am very sad about the declaration of the strike as indefinite. I am not happy. My heart is bleeding. And I can tell you that parents who have their children in public universities are not happy with this government. We believe that if we do not take education very seriously in this country, there is no way we can develop; it’s not a curse. Because anybody, who wants to build a house, does not start with the roof; he must start with the foundation. The foundation of the successes of so many countries is based on education. So, as a result, I am appealing to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to know that parents are not happy. The irony of the whole show is that the 2023 general election is around the corner and it’s parents of the public students and the downtrodden that will go and queue to vote for them, while most of the big men will travel out.

“I am also appealing to ASUU. As it’s affecting us, it’s also affecting many lecturers too because most of them do not believe in enrolling their children in private universities. They believe that public universities are the best.The Federal Government should not only consider students and lecturers, they must consider those who are making their money like the cab operators and those who are selling groundnuts, snacks, among others, on campuses. For the past six to seven months now, no source of income for them; they are all jobless. It’s very sad. We didn’t expect this from the President Buhari administration. This is my candid opinion as a parent.”

We have developed thick skin to survive, says UNIJOS ASUU Chapter

The value of a university is the socio-economic activities it commands when it’s functioning.That saying vividly described the condition of Naraguta and Hausa communities of Jos.

It’s all a sad story from the taxi drivers that ferried students from hostels to campus, the operators of over 40 restaurants that thrive when students are around, the landlords who rent their apartments to students, women that sell snacks around the school and the shop owners who sell notebooks and other stationeries. Also not left out are those who provide internet services to students and those who render secretariat services around the campus and hostels.

Generally, the UNIJOS has huge economic impact on the entire city of Jos. In its absence, due to the strike, many businesses are put on hold. Invariably, many people are out of job.

The Nation learnt that the lecturers, who have been deprived of their salaries as a result of the strike, have devised other means of survival. They have even developed thick skin and have made up their minds to stick with the indefinite strike as long as it is possible.

Chairman of ASUU, UNIJOS Chapter, Dr. Lazarus Maigoro said: “We haven’t lost any member in UNIJOS due to lack of salary. We are too intelligent to suffer as a result of lack of salaries. Our members have devised other means of survival without salary. It’s the reason this strike is lasting this long without suspension, and we are still ready to continue with the strike.

“UNIJOS ASUU has never lost any member to death since the commencement of the strike.”

Lecturers, business owners in OAU, Ife lament

Lecturers and business owners at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State are also lamenting  the ongoing strike.

A business owner, who has a photocopy machine within the campus, named Steven, said: “Since I have left the campus six months ago, things are very tight for me; I am an Okada rider. Since we don’t know the time they will resume.

“Some of my colleagues have returned to farming while most of them are now Okada riders because we have family members to feed.”

Similarly, a lecturer in the Department of Public Administration, Dr. Dare Ayeni, lamented that the hardship faced by lecturers had forced many to jet out.

He said: “Many lecturers are financially depending on their family members and ex-students to survive. As primary and secondary schools are planning to resume, most of us are under serious pressure on how we are going to provide basic needs for our children. Some of us have an understanding with the management of the schools on payment of our children’s school fees.

“Our (ASUU) struggle is not self-driven, but we are fighting for the coming generation that is why our immediate communities are giving us the needed support physically, materially and economically.”

UNILORIN ASUU chair: how our members are surviving is miraculous

The standoff is taking its heavy toll on lecturers, ASUU Chair, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof Moyosore Ajao, has said.

Ajao told our correspondent that some of the lecturers with some form of health conditions were surviving by a miracle.

He added that the government’s belligerent posture amounts to callousness and insensitivity.

Ajao said: “A lot of our members who have chronic diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes as well as other systemic diseases have been adversely affected. But what can we do?

“The union is doing its best to support them and how some are surviving is miraculous. The truth is that Nigerian government should think twice and reflect on what it is doing.

“When people’s salaries are not paid, you have denied them means of livelihood. Even in war time, hunger and starvation are not to be employed as a means of conquering. So, what Nigerian government has deployed against the intellectuals of the country is hunger and starvation.”

A concerned lecturer, who craved anonymity, lamented that the union had lost three of its members to the strike.

“We have lost three members in faculty of education. Some members are having severe ailments and they are on medications. Our offices are now dilapidated and bushy. In some cases, both husbands and wives are in the system. Some have taken to Uber, driving to survive. Some are having backlog of bank loans to repay.

“Across the university, we have lost several members to death and retirement,” the source added.

‘Some of our members are sick and need to buy medication in UNILAG’

ASUU Lagos Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Adelaja Odukoya, in a telephone chat with The Nation, berated the Federal Government for being ‘insensitive’ to the plight of lecturers, adding that some members of the union are sick and need money to buy medication.

He lamented members of the public were berating the union for declaring an indefinite strike, saying that their children are also affected.

“Everyone is blaming ASUU for the strike; no one is talking about the insensitivity of government and no one is talking about lecturers’ demands not being met. We are parents too and our children are also affected,” he said.

Micheal Ekemeka, a cab driver and an executive member of the union of cab drivers in University of Lagos (UNILAG) lamented low patronage and the difficulty in coping since the strike commenced. He said it has also affected profit.

He said: “The level of patronage is very low. Everywhere is dull since students have left campus. Even the market women are complaining of low patronage. On our side, we can be here for more than an hour before we see one or two persons to enter cab. We often fall asleep in the process. Meeting our daily needs and taking care of our families seems very difficult. The increase in fuel price again is equally affecting us. The income we get is not enough.”

He, however, advised the Federal Government and ASUU to resolve all contentious issues at hand for students to go back to school.

‘ASUU’s total, indefinite strike step in right direction’

A foremost human rights activist in Benin, Edo State, Kola Edokpayi, has described as a step in the right direction, the comprehensive, total and indefinite strike by ASUU.

He accused the Federal Government of being insensitive to the plight of ASUU’s members in their quest to ensure adequate funding and commensurate infrastructural development of higher institutions.

Edokpayi declared that it was wrong of officials of the Federal Government to sign agreements with leaders of ASUU, without implementing them.

The frontline human rights activist called on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to listen to the cries of members of ASUU and do the needful, for the lecturers to return to their classrooms.

Stakeholders knock ASUU in Anambra

The indefinite strike action has elicited an outrage from stakeholders in the Anambra State.

One of the major stakeholders in Anambra State, Chief Modestus Umenzekwe, told The Nation that the Union was being insensitive to the plight of students.

Besides, he said they should know that the present government of the All Progressives Congress APC, had before now, released some amount to ASUU, unlike the previous government that signed the agreement.

However, he said both the government and the ASUU should find an amicable way of settling the grey areas to lessen the sufferings of the students

A Public Policy Analyst, Chima Christian, condemned the idea of universities’ regular visits to Abuja for their basic needs, saying such move rendered them lazy.

He canvassed for internal generation of funds by Nigerian public universities through their alumni network, partnerships with private sector, as well as endowments from NGOs and high net-worth individuals.

Chairman, Anambra Civil Society Network (ACSONET), Prince Chris Azor, said the ASUU’s indefinite strike declaration would portend division and dissent in the ranks of the union.

‘In UNIBEN, things have been bad’

In Edo State, the Federal Government-owned University of Benin (UNIBEN) is the only public university that is fully taking part in the indefinite strike.

The two public universities owned by the Edo State government – Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, and Edo State University, Uzairue (formerly Edo University, Iyamho) – are not fully participating in the ongoing strike, in view of the threat by Governor Godwin Obaseki to sack all the staff. Although, many ASUU members of AAU ignored Obaseki’s threat by joining the strike, but the higher institution is in session with skeletal academic activities ongoing.

The Chairman of ASUU, UNIBEN Chapter, Dr. Ray Chikogu, admitted that things have been very tough for members of the union, who had not been paid their salaries in the last six months. But he declared that they were determined to forge ahead to ensure total transformation of Nigeria’s university system, particularly to ensure adequate funding and befitting infrastructural growth.

Chikogu noted that no lecturer of UNIBEN had passed on, since the strike started on February 14 this year, in spite of the hardship, thanking God for His grace and mercy on members of the union.

Oyo undergraduates: how we are saving our parents the strike burdens

Immediate host communities of the University of Ibadan, including, Agbowo, Ojoo, Preboye, Sango, Ajibode, Bodija, among others, have not been spared of the effect of the strike action.

The situation, it was gathered, is not different in Ogbomosho axis of Oyo State, which is hosting the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH).

When The Nation visited the areas in Ibadan, many of the students, especially undergraduates gathered in small groups in their various off-campus residences both in the morning and mostly late in the afternoon discussing their situations. Many students also spend their time on regular basis at football viewing centres, fun spots, clubs among other joints.

In separate interactions with some students, they claimed they choose to stay in their hostels to relate with friends and colleagues, adding that the method was the only way to save their parents the burden and pain of having them around.

In an interview with Mr. Salau Kalejaiye, a landlord in one of apartments been occupied by some students of the UI around Ajibode, said many of the landlords in the axis have their eyes on the students to ensure they didn’t engage in crimes and criminalities while the strike lasted.

A business operator around UI, Mr. Bola Adejoye, said it is not the best of times for operators, owing to the strike.

He explained that although, some individuals from the town still come to make photocopies, type and print documents, the work level and profit margin was nothing to compare with when academic activities were in full force.

Strike bites harder on Uturu community, Abia

Apart from being an agrarian community, Uturu also serves as a major route for both commercial and private cars to gain entry into Ebonyi State off Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt. It is also the community that hosts both the Abia State University (ABSU) and a privately owned university, Gregory University.

Businesses in the area may not be making a huge profit. However, the rate of turnover is huge that a good business person can cash into the rate of turnovers to have something to boast of at the end of every day’s sales.

Sadly, the story is no longer the same for those having business centres around the Abia State University in the last six months that the university’s ASUU leadership decided to join their counterparts across the country to observe the ongoing nationwide protest.

Information has it that the effect of the ongoing nationwide strike on the Uturu community is biting hard, especially on those whose means of livelihoods depend largely on students’ patronage.

Hostel owners are equally counting their losses as some of their tenants were yet to renew their rents. Some of the house agents are equally bearing the heat as most of the students who may want to relocate to another place of residence are still at home.

The story is the same for intra and inter-city transporters that operate within the school and people of Uturu community are lamenting over the drop in patronage.

A student, who depends on what he makes from transportation to pay his school fees, told our correspondent that he was forced to park his cab to relocate to the village to engage in farming business pending when the strike will be called off by ASUU.

The leadership of ASUU, Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu chapter, has, however, appealed to Abia State Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu to pay their 10-months arrears of salary.

Communities, parents, students cry over prolonged strike in Katsina

Host communities of universities located in Dutsinma and Batagarawa in Katsina state as well as parents and students are beginning to lament several loses they have incurred due to the six-month old prolonged strike by ASUU.

Most parents, community leaders and some of the students, who spoke to The Nation during a visit to their respective locations, said they have even started withdrawing their earlier supports to the lecturers.

Some of those who spoke to The Nation have appealed to Governor Aminu Bello Masari to help appeal to the Federal Government to reach an agreement with the union. They also want the governor to order ASUU members of the state-owned Umar Musa Yar’Adua University (UMYU) to return to school.

Alhaji Abdulkadir Bala, a father who has four children at UMYU, said the governor should give the order to end the strike at the university owned by the state.

Hadiza Abubakar, a mother, who has two final-year students at UMYU, also expressed similar concerns about the strike.

She lamented that the strike is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the federal and state governments’ efforts at providing education for the poor.

Effects of ASUU strike in Adamawa

Two public universities exist in Adamawa State – The Modibbo Adama University (MAU) in Yola, owned by the Federal Government; and Adamawa State University (ADSU), located in Mubi and run by the state government.

The Girei Community near Yola, which hosts MAU, is deeply affected by the strike because not only are businesses in Girei suffering poor patronage because students are not around, ASUU members too are suffering because of suspension of salary payment.

“It’s been six months since we’ve been paid any salary, and we have only been surviving by the grace of God,” said Professor Ibrahim Aliyu, who, however, said no death had been reported of any ASUU member in the university due to strike-related hardship.

On effect of the strike on business, Mary Hosea, a student of the university who currently runs her mother’s restaurant located right opposite the main gate of the institution, said sales had dwindled badly.

“We have a few people who stroll in now and then but of course students form the bulk of our customer base and they are not around. So, we thank God for whoever comes in now and then,” Mary told our correspondent.

For the Adamawa State University in Mubi, students suffer loss of learning and businesses groan over lack of patronage. But, lecturers are getting paid despite the strike.

Both Press Secretary to Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, Humwashi Wonosikou and ADSU Information Officer Benson Belmond attest to the fact that lecturers are being paid regularly before and since the start of ASUU strike.

Host communities, business owners, lecturers lament in Benue

Benue State University (BSU) Makurdi is located within the heart of the state capital along Makurdi- Gboko federal highway.

The location of the state-owned university provides an opportunity for the host communities of the two campuses of the higher institution to engage in business of buying and selling. But the six month strike has left traders on the campuses with tales of lamentation.

For Lecturers and their families, it’s one of their worst trying moment as they battle to provide basic necessities of life like food, paying rents and meeting health needs.

Dr. Paul Omale of Benue State University (BSU) told our correspondent that his wife went through operation to deliver a baby and the hospital management held her and the new baby for three week over medical bill of N300,000 until friends intervened.

Some shop owners at the university’s local  market, who spoke to The Nation, said 80 per cent of those who patronise them were students on campus and since they left because of the prolong strike , they are living from hand to mouth. They pleaded with the Federal Government and ASUU to settle amicably.