Success Nwanedo
Some students of the University of Port Harcourt have expressed displeasure over the one-month strike action commenced by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
ASUU had on Monday, February 14, declared a four-week warning strike after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Lagos, over the inability of the federal government to implement the renegotiated 2009 agreement it had with the union.
The University of Port Harcourt, however, joined the strike on Wednesday, in solidarity with its National body.
Some of the students were seen carrying travelling bags, said they had been asked to return home by their parents.
One of the students in the faculty of Engineering, who gave his name simply as Marvelous said they were to commence examinations next week before the ASUU made the strike announcement.
According to him, “My elder sister spent 7 years in school because of this same strike. I just matriculated and I don’t want to experience the same thing. We were to start exams next week, now, we don’t even know if we’re to go home or stay in school and wait.”
They expressed their frustration over the incessant strike of lecturers, urging the federal government and the academic body to settle their differences once and for all.
A post-graduate student of the institution, who spoke to TPCN in anonymity, said the federal government and ASUU have succeeded in making a joke of the educational sector of the nation.
He maintained that from his days as an undergraduate, to where he is now, ASUU strike has become a legacy and no longer surprises him and his colleuges.
He, however, urged ASUU to consider the future of Nigerian students and reach a truce with the federal government.
