AN atmosphere of anger and frustration currently pervades campuses of federal universities across the country following the virtual collapse of basic utilities due to ongoing strike action by members of the Non-academic Staff of Union (NASU).
Students, especially those resident on campus are frustrated due to the drastic fall in power and water supply to their hostels and have threatened to go on strike in sympathy with NASU members.
Reports from Kwara State indicated that students of the University of Ilorin have continued to feel the nagging impact of the industrial action being embarked upon by the institution’s NASU.
The students, who spoke with Sunday Tribune, lamented that the NASU strike has slowed down their academic activities, expressing fear that their performance may be affected if it lingered for too long.
Damilare Ayoade, 300 Level student of the Faculty of Information and Library Science said that workers at the computer laboratory had not been at their duty posts ever since the strike commenced. He said that all concerned students are in the dark on what awaits them during the exam since they are not currently learning anything.
Ayoade, who also said that course registration in many departments has been affected, added that registration by lecturers doing ad-hoc duties, took longer period unlike when members of NASU were on duty.
Also speaking, Emiola Adetutu a fresh student of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the university said that most of the classes the students were supposed to attend at the Chemistry laboratory were skipped as the place was always under lock and key.
Umar Abubakar, a 200 Level student of the Mass Communication department said that the school internet service has not been providing full services since the strike started.
Abubakar, who said that the NASU national body had picketed the school to enforce total compliance, called on concerned authorities to look into ways to end the strike to ensure a condusive learning environment. The student also commended the management of the institution on measures taken at ameliorating effects of the strike action so far.
At Bayero University Kano (BUK), the situation is similar. However some of students lamented that they often spend a lot of money on sachet water, while many of them had relocated to off-campus hostels where their friends reside.
The students who preferred anonymity also lamented poor power supply. The NASU strike has also affected activities at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital where only skeletal services are being provided.
The students said if the situation persists they may stage a protest, thus calling on the federal government to as a matter of urgency look into the demands of NASU. They also advised government not to wait until the situation gets worse.
Leader of Joint Action Committee of the three unions in the strike, Comrade Ashim Abba YakassaI speaking on the development said they were not happy to go on strike but when the federal government failed to meet their demands the only option available was to proceed on strike.
Comrade Yakassai said the strike had been suspended once because the federal government promised to meet workers’ demands but failed to do so.
“That made us to call-off the strike,” he said, “because the Federal government responded that they would pay part of our allowances. However when we resumed work, as I am talking with you now, only two of our demands were met.”
In Enugu State, the NASU strike is also affecting students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). Investigations revealed that many fresh students are yet to have their registration numbers despite the fact that they had their matriculation ceremony penultimate Saturday.
A visit to Nsukka and Enugu campuses of UNN showed that security personnel of the university had taken over some of the duties of the non-academic staff in the institution.
Some of the students interviewed said that there is irregular supply of water while power supply was only recently normalised.
“As I am talking to you now everything is down. Many of us are yet to get registration numbers. We have not been given assignments because we do not have registration numbers,” one of the students who gave his name as Matthew said.
At Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) there was a threat to suspend its matriculation ceremony, on the grounds of management’s insensitivity to the plight of the striking non-teaching staff of the university.
Chairperson of SSANU, NAU branch and also the chairperson of the NAU Joint Action Committee of NAT, SSANU and NASU, Comrade Njideka Nwangwu, alleged that the management of NAU has withheld their hazard allowance on the ground that they were not entitled to such money.
Nwangwu alleged that the federal government has released the hazard allowance but accused the university management of sitting on it, vowing that the strike will continue indefinitely until their demands are met.
At the Federal University of Technology Minna, the Joint Action Committees has threatened that starting from this month end, their members preparing monthly salaries of the workforce would be prevented from doing so forthwith.
Indication to this effect emerged penultimate week as the striking workers noted that the decision not to accede to their request for pay increase meant that they were not being taken seriously unlike their ASUU counterparts whom they said had since been paid huge amount of money.