ASUU strike: Confusion, despair greet FG’s ultimatum

 

Federal Government’s ultimatum to striking university teachers further compounds students’ ordeals, CHARLES ABAH writes

For over 150 days, Emmanuel Eze, a post-graduate student of Mass Communication at the Benue State University, Makurdi, has been idling away at home, no thanks to the nationwide strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.click here for full story

Like thousands of other students in the country, Eze initially hoped that the strike would be short. But it had dragged on indefinitely and in the process, delayed the progress of his academic programmme, which, he thought, would have ended last September.

To make matters worse, just when he had begun to look forward to a resolution of the conflict, his hope was suddenly dashed as the Federal Government, through the Supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, issued a directive to the striking lecturers last Thursday, ordering them to go back to work before December 4 or face dismissal. ASUU had quickly responded by asking its members to ignore the order.