With the current news in circulation, it has been said that Association of Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are threatening to embark on an indefinite strike until their desire and request is met by the Federal Government. It is important to know that strike is one of the worst experience any student should not pray to encounter.
A popular adage goes thus, “When two elephants fight, the ground suffers”. When the Federal Government and ASUU have misunderstanding, students suffer.
Be it as it may, ASUU strike is not something anyone should crave for. Do not wish to have a feel of it because it leaves scars on your academic life.
In this article, I want to encourage and motivate students on how to make the most and best out of any ASUU strike at all. Before then, let me state some adverse effect strike will have on every student.
- Loss of time: Every ASUU strike that visits you leaves you with a serious loss of time. Remember that time wasted can never be regained.
- Knowledge will decrease: When strike comes, knowledge will decrease because there will be no more lectures. No more assignments and tests. In turn, no more reason to study.
- The duration of your studies will be lengthened: If the duration of your stay in school is 4 years, ASUU strike has the ability to lengthen it to 5 years. My primary 6 teacher spent more than 7 years studying a 4 years course in a university because of strike. Imagine when a student becomes a full time teacher. Many of us even doubted if he was really a student or not.
- Anxiety: You will be so anxious on a daily basis. The question that will keep occurring and reoccurring in your mind is “When will this strike be over”? If you live far from your school, you will be afraid of traveling because your mind set will be like, “what if I travel today and they call of the strike next week”. You will just decide to stay more. And time will continue spilling over.
- Boringness: Everything will become boring. There will be no more joy at all. You will be tired of seeing movies. You will be tired of visiting friends. You will be tired of staying at home. In fact, you will be tired of everything. Everything will be boring to you.
- Everything will be hurried up when the strike is called up: Once school resumes, expect every activity to run with a speed of light. Most especially, in a situation where the strike lasts for long. Once it is called up, expect examination – whether you were taught or not. Few weeks will be brought out for revision and then examination follows.
- You will lose contacts: You will lose many contact, though for a short term. You will miss a lot of friends and lecturers
No more enthusiasm: You will lack enthusiasm for any meaningful thing. No enthusiasm to read again. No enthusiasm to research. Every time will be given to social media and you might even get tired of it.
Knowing these, yet in every disadvantage, there more be an advantage.
You can use strike period judiciously for your own good. Here are a few things I recommend that you do.
- Increase your productivity: You must seek to increase your productivity. Remember that from the knowledge of agriculture, bush fallowing increases the nutrient of the soil, which in turn enhances it productivity. How productive have you been in the past? How productive are you currently? Use this strike period to improve on it for your own good and betterment.
- Increase your knowledge: You must increase your knowledge in this period. No matter how little the increase might be.
- Increase you employability: I wrote an article with the title, “Why Nigerian graduates are unemployable”. Read the article carefully and see the reasons I stated there. Then, you can use this ASUU strike period to increase your employability. Enhance your skill within this period. Some of my course mates used the strike period to learn some Information Technology skills like website designing, programming, networking etc. Use this time to learn something that will aid you later.
- Do not be idle: The climax of it all is this, “Do not be lazy”. Eschew laziness at all cost. Get your self involved into something meaningful and profitable
See strike period as a time to help yourself. Probably, because of your busy schedule during your normal school period, you might not be able to do some important things. This strike period is a period to do those things which you could not do during the semester. Let this strike better your life and not barter you.
