Eight months after polytechnic lecturers
embarked on industrial action, their students
now employ other survival strategies, CHARLES
ABAH writes
Isah Kwano is a Higher National Diploma,
Banking and Finance student of the Federal
Polytechnic, Bauchi. But due to the ongoing
strike by the Academic Staff Union of
Polytechnics, you are not likely to find him on
campus nowadays.
Instead, you may find the youth operating a
commercial vehicle known locally as Kabukabu.
It is not his will to suddenly become a
transporter. It is an outcome of the protracted
industrial action.
Kwano says, “My brother, I do not want to lose
on all fronts. Initially, I thought the industrial
action was not going to last long. But now I
have spent over eight months at home. So, to
keep the body and soul together, I discussed
with other members of my family and they
allowed me to use one of the family cars for
transport business.
“Every day, I leave in the morning with the car. I
must admit that this has kept me busy and away
from sundry vices. It has also reduced the level
of frustration that I face.
“Above all, there is no day that I do not make up
to N1,000 since I got into the cab business
earlier in the year. However, this is not to justify
the continued industrial action. I want the
Federal Government and the lecturers to resolve
their differences as soon as possible so that I
can return to campus.”
He is not the only victim of the current strike by
lecturers in public polytechnics. The story of
Abdulmalik Usman, an HND 11 student of the
Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State, presents
another dimension to the strike that has lasted
for 240 days today.
For the youngster, the situation has become a
hopeless one. By his calculation, he has lost an
academic session due to the tango.
He says with bitterness in his voice, “How do we
reconcile the fact we have been at home since
October 4, 2013? A normal academic semester
lasts for three months. Now, we have stayed out
of campus for eight months. Have we not
naturally lost more than a full academic session
at home? Before the strike, we had earlier spent
more than two months due to strike in 2013. So
you can see that it is a hopeless condition.”
Asked how he has been handling the situation,
Usman – who is the President, National
Association of Polytechnic Engineering Students
– says he has no wherewithal to start a small-
scale business.
He adds, “I am often at home engaging in a
personal research work. This may sound strange
to you, but it has taken up my time. My research
emphasis is on Nigeria’s history. I have taken
my time to compile top events, especially in the
education sector, from Independence to the
present day. The idea is that in the future, I will
not want those coming behind us to pass
through the difficulties some of us are going
through today. Look at my fate and that of
thousands of students across the country. Look
at technical education in the country. With this
standstill approach, is there a future for
polytechnic education in the country?”
For Lukman Adekitan of the Federal Polytechnic,
Ede, Osun State, the strike has prevented him
from participating in the NYSC scheme.
Adekitan, who also says he has not been doing
anything special since the strike began, notes
with a frown that a female colleague of his has
been impregnated.
“It will interest you to know that one of my
colleagues, an unmarried female student, is now
pregnant. When I asked her what went wrong
she responded, Na so oo. This is to tell you how
much this strike has altered our lives. Supposing
there have been normal academic activities, I
would have gone for national youth service
before now,” he explains.
A student of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Dare
Amoo, who urges the Federal Government to
yield to the lecturers’ demands, notes that the
demands were to improve the polytechnic sector.
On what has been keeping him busy, Amoo
states that he has abandoned his books for now.
He adds, “At present, I am learning how to make
art works. Some months ago, I learnt how to
beautify houses. I advise other students to try to
engage themselves in one activity or the other.
They should not just sit at home. They should
not waste this free time. They should learn some
works in order to assist their parents.”
Adetunji Oluwaseyi of the Osun State
Polytechnic, Iree also shares Amoo’s view that
the Federal Government should attend to the
lecturers’ demands. He keeps himself busy with
a tutorial organised in the school. “The tutorial
has kept many of us here and prevented us from
engaging in unnecessary travelling around the
country,” he says.
However, as the likes of Usman, Amoo and
Kwano engage in things that keep them away
from frustration and vices, as well as grow them
individually, the National Association of
Polytechnic Student Senate President, Lukeman
Saludeen, has a different thing to say.
Salaudeen, a Mining Engineering HND 11 student
of the Kaduna Polytechnic, has been busy
interfacing between the students and the
“warring parties” in the crisis.
The student leader, who acknowledges that the
strike has been tough on students, says the
Federal Government has not been fair to the
polytechnic sub-sector.
According to him, beyond the danger of exposing
some students to social vices, the industrial
action has temporarily truncated the dream of
many students to participate in the NYSC.
He also notes, with anger in his voice, that the
authorities have not been able to act decisively
on the BSc/HND discrimination.
He declares, “Before the recent inauguration of
the Chief Pius Anyim-led committee, the Federal
Government claimed that the issue of HND/ BSc
had been reconciled. With this new committee,
the truth has come to the fore that the
authorities are not sincere in their dealings with
those in the polytechnic sector. They proclaim
one thing today and do another the next day.”
Agreeing with Salaudeen, the striking polytechnic
lecturers have also accused the Supervising
Minister of Education, Chief Nyeson Wike, of
causing an “irrevocable” damage to the nation’s
education sector.
According to them, the minister is on a mission
to inflict permanent damage on public
polytechnics.
The lecturers, who spoke through the National
President of the Academic Staff Union of
Polytechnics, Chibuzo Asomugha, accused Wike
of “blackmail and double speak.”
Lecturers in the nation’s public polytechnics,
who have been on strike since last October 5,
2013, are seeking, among others, the removal of
what they regard as discrimination against
polytechnic graduates, review of the Polytechnics
Act, the establishment of a National Polytechnics
Commission and the release of the White Paper
of the visitation to federal polytechnics.
They are also kicking against the poor funding of
polytechnics, deplorable condition of state
polytechnics, appointment of unqualified persons
as rectors of polytechnics and the review of the
Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System
and the funding of the CONTISS 15 Migration.
Asomugha, in an interview with our
correspondent, insists that Wike is out to
destroy the sector, considering his actions and
utterances.
The ASUP President also points to the last
Academic Staff Union of Universities strike and
the ongoing industrial action by the Colleges of
Education Academic Staff Union, saying the
minister’s role in the crises is suspect.
He says, “The Supervising Minister of Education
appears to be on a mission to inflict an
irrevocable damage to polytechnic education in
Nigeria. He has not hidden his anger against the
striking workers of polytechnics and colleges of
education who dare to disagree with him.
“It is still very much in doubt that Wike has the
capacity to manage an industrial crisis in the
education sector. For instance, it took the
intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan to
stop Wike from completely messing up the last
ASUU strike.
“Now the polytechnic lecturers and their colleges
of education counterparts have been on strike for
many months, and all the supervising minister
has done is to relish in blackmail,
misrepresentation of facts, bullying, blustering
and double speak.”
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