Earlier today, there was a severe traffic at Ojota which also affected ketu and other bus stops before it including Mile 12. The traffic was so heavy that one could spend more than one hour just between ketu and Ojota which is normally a 8 - 15 minutes trip when using vehicle depending on the speed. However, motorists are unsure if this will continue tomorrow and next week looking at the fact that it has been like that for about two days now. Due to this event, if you enter a bus to ketu or from ketu, its either you face the traffic or the driver turns and follow another alternate route depending on your destination. It still remains a shocking fact that all the bus stops after Ojota are not affected by this traffic as at today which means that the road from Ojota is free however, if you are moving from Ojota to ketu, you might still experience traffic.
Agricultural students at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Abia State, have chastised the Federal Government for failing to provide a long-term solution to the continuing problem with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Furthermore, the students expressed concern that the professors' repeated strike activities in order to pound home their demands were decreasing the levels of teaching and learning in the country's public institutions.
Chijioke Emmanuel, the Public Relations Officer for the MOUAU Student Union Government, told our reporter that the incident was heartbreaking, and that the reality of the students' persistent industrial activities haunted their thoughts.
As he pointed out, students were outraged that strike actions had undoubtedly become a regular feature of the university's academic calendar, to the point where it appears that no session in public universities can be considered complete without at the very least a warning strike action, which could last for several weeks, or a full-blown strike action, such as the current strike currently taking place across the country.
'ASUU has engaged on continuous strike actions for a significant amount of at least 20 - 25 times between 1981 and 2018,' he said, adding that, as per 'dataphyte,' the union has also spent one out of every 4 days on strike in the previous six years. At recent years, at least between 2017 and 2020, the length of time spent on strikes in Nigerian colleges has increased significantly, rising from 8.9 percent in 2017 to 68.4 percent in 2020."
"While it's difficult to answer in a binary format, the Student Union Government has accused the Federal Government with lack of responsibility and unintentionality on their part for failing to allocate up to at least 26 percent of the annual budget toward improving standards of education, frameworks, and structure in the country. This has been at the heart of the union's strike actions."
"This is contemptuous on the part of the Federal Government, because the government should be aware that sound and quality education at all levels, particularly at the tertiary/university level, is critical to any nation's national development, scalability, and international industrial competitiveness. And any type of negligence in this area will lead to the long-term economic stagnation of the country.
This urgent action from government is required to bring an end not only to the current strike action, but also to prevent future strike actions by meeting the real needs of The Academic Staff Union Of Universities in terms of university infrastructure development, academic welfare, and other matters.
As well as issues about the payment system, the union has refused to allow their representatives to enroll in the IPPIS payment scheme because it interferes with the freedom of the universities, and the Federal Government has expressed concerns about the integrity of the ASUU's UTAS payment algorithm," the statement continued.
"This debate about conference tables has only served to divert students' attention away from their studying tables, and the consequences of this are being felt most acutely by the students, who are slowly but steadily losing interest in, desire for, and hunger for education. The United States will lose its technological competitiveness if this trend continues, because the undergrads who are being trained to compete with other countries and bring this country closer to realizing its maximum potential are dropping out of school as a result of poor planning and sluggish implementation of the necessary policies, among other factors.
In contrast, ASUU should exercise caution while making demands, and it is likely that they will find alternate means of bringing their demands home other than via strike action."
In addition, Nduka Ifeanyichukwu, a 200-level student at the institution, voiced his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the election.
"I am presently in 200 level, and in the two academic period from 2020-2022, I have undergone almost 10 months of non-academic activities as a result of the strike, with more to come if the Federal Government does not act quickly."
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