STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS COLD: ASUU’S INDUSTRIAL ACTION AND THE PRICE OF SILENCE

Anthony EKPO BASSEY

When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. Sadly, in the Nigerian education sector, the grass has been trampled far too many times. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), once again, is set to downed tools, and the ripple effect is anything but academic. Like a broken record on an old gramophone, the same song plays: unmet demands, unfulfilled promises, withheld salaries, and the haunting ghost of the 2009 agreement, which has become more of a myth than a memorandum.

It is no longer news that ASUU has announced its intention to embark on another strike but while they exercise their right to protest, the nation bleeds from the consequences. The halls of our universities would echo with silence instead of scholarship, and students, caught in the crossfire of broken promises and bureaucratic bungling, will be left chasing shadows instead of degrees.

This strike, no matter how noble the cause, will be another spanner in the already shaky works of our academic calendar. Sessions once mapped with precision are now tossed into limbo. The "four-year course" has become a pipe dream. Infact, a mirage that disappears the closer one gets. Students who should be planning for convocation are instead marking time, aging into adulthood in lecture theatres that should have long emptied their final year. The Nigerian university student, instead of planning a future, is forced to repeat the past.

ASUU claims, with some justification, that the government has played fast and loose with its responsibilities. Agreements are signed with much fanfare and filed away with even greater indifference. The 2009 agreement has become a well-worn shoe, always taken off, never polished. Yet, it is not enough to shout from the rooftops if the roof itself is leaking. Strikes have now become the default mode of protest, and in the process, they have lost their sting, achieving more fatigue than reform.

Meanwhile, the federal government continues to act like a cat that closes its eyes and believes the world has gone dark. In this tug-of-war, it must be reminded that playing the ostrich helps no one. For every week that goes by without meaningful intervention, the rot in the system deepens. We are raising a generation of students more familiar with industrial actions than intellectual debates.

And let’s not pretend the damage is skin-deep. The socio-economic implications are as clear as daylight. Parents groan under the financial weight of idled wards. Some students, tired of the endless wait, turn to crime or become victims of exploitation. Many drift into unplanned marriages, menial jobs, or worse, a future foreclosed before it even begins.

At this point, it is crystal clear that the chicken has come home to roost. The recurring crisis in the education sector is not just a reflection of broken trust, but also a glaring testament to administrative negligence. The government must understand that you cannot make omelettes by breaking the same eggs every year.

Now is the time for statesmanship, not stonewalling. The Federal Government must step up to the plate. No more band-aids on bullet wounds. Concrete, visible, and lasting solutions must be forged, not in whispers behind closed doors, but in clear, binding action. A stitch in time saves nine, but we are long past nine. It is high time we picked up the needle and thread.

To ASUU, we say: while your cause may be just, the method is wearing thin. When the house is on fire, pouring kerosene on it would not help. There must be new ways to press your case. In other words, ways that do not hold students hostage or mortgage the nation’s future.

At the end of the day, if we continue this cycle, the damage may be irreversible. Education is not a bargaining chip. It is the bedrock of any progressive society. And when that bedrock crumbles, the whole house falls.

The ball, quite clearly, is in the government’s court. Let it not be said that while Rome burned, Nero fiddled.