Tosin Omoniyi
3 November 2009
Abuja — For Agbabiaka Lukman Abayomi, 24, a final year student of the faculty of education, University of Lagos, the recent industrial action embarked upon by the lecturers is an agonizing experience that would remain indelible to him for years to come. Apart from putting an end to his sterling career at the Ivory Tower it equally landed him in the jail of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA where he is currently cooling his heels.
Abayomi was arrested by eagle eyed security operatives during a screening of an Arik Airline flight to London on the 30 of September, 2009 at about 7.30am. He was found to be pregnant with 59 wraps of hard drugs, which he had ingested several hours before boarding the plane.
Upon interrogation Abayomi confessed that he had been lured into the criminal act as a result of boredom engendered by the seemingly unending strike by ASUU. According To him, the 2500 pounds promised him by a drug courier, Adegbemisola Adedeji was not the real motive behind his actions, as he comes from an influential family. Findings reveal that the embattled student is a close relative of a prominent Oba in the South-West, and his father is a successful legal practitioner.
Abayomi is now full of regrets: "I swallowed 59 wraps of the drug and they promised me 2500 pounds. I feel terrible and disappointed now. I have really disappointed my family, not because they did not provide for my needs. I was bored and wanted to travel out because of the strike. My friend told me they had a business for me, and I did not know it was drugs. I do not know why I consented. This is shameful," Abayomi wailed when newsmen sought to find out why he decided to engage in the illegitimate trade.
According to a senior officer of the anti drug agency, extricating Abayomi from the mess can be likened to the proverbial passage of a camel through the eye of the needle. "Adedeji, the drug baron who introduced Abayomi to the business is the head of a notorious drug cell in Lagos. The agency has been on his trail for months. He was deported from the UK recently. The arrests will help in nipping in the bud a very dangerous drug trend in the South Western part of the nation."
Few days to this incident, the nation had equally been shocked by astounding revelation of how three students of the University of Abuja, Kingsley Njoku Obi, Chilaka Rowland and Aniebo Ochuko had perfected plans on how to abduct for ransom, the minister of education, Sam Egwu and his labor ministry counterpart, Adetokunbo Kayode, SAN. The students who had been offered the job for a fee of N14m, attributed their involvement to boredom and a desire to make quick cash. Had the plan not been frustrated by operatives of the State Security Service, SSS, the duo would have been kidnapped and their respective families made to part with a princely sum of N300m, after which the victims would still have been killed for what the suspects termed crime against the Nigerian students. That was the crux of the confession extracted from the undergraduate criminals.
The striking lecturers on the 23rd of October postponed indefinitely an industrial action that had gone on for 4 months. The strike which commenced on June 22 had been called ostensibly to protest the refusal of the federal government to sign an agreement that had been put together by the union and the government in 2006. Amongst other things, the lecturers were demanding for the autonomy of the university professors, increased funding for universities-implementation of 25% of budget standard of the UN and a 40% increase in salaries. The FG had refused to sign the controversial agreement stating that by doing so it would be flouting the constitutional rule of true federalism, since the said agreement would be binding on state universities.
Each refusing to shift grounds, the nation had subsequently witnessed a gruelling 4 month strike that had left its toll not only on the students, but lecturers, including other stakeholders in the higher educational system.
According to Abiodun Awosusi, a medical student at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, no one could adequately account for the number of students who lost their lives during the protracted crisis. A key member of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, Awosusi notes sadly that , "the disruption of activities by the strike action caused so much frustration and pain to both students and their parents, with thousands engaging in negative acts like prostitution, armed robbery, militancy, cultism and other social vices. University students who were idle at home, easily became tools in the hands of unscrupulous politicians who used them as thugs and ballot box snatchers."
The Vice President, Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, Comrade Issa Aremu supports Awosusi's assertion at a recent forum in one of the nations's premier universities. While expressing skepticism at the potency of strike actions in solving industrial actions, he noted that indeed many students died during the face off, while many others were cooling their heels in jails across the country, for engaging in criminal activities during the strike.
In Plateau State on Tuesday September 15 many students tired of staying idle sustained various degrees of injuries when they engaged security operatives in fisticuffs, over the non payment of their bursaries by the state government. Many of the students expressed dismay that the stipend which they needed to protect themselves from the pangs of hunger was being denied them.
Sina Ayodele, a public affairs analyst resident in the FCT believes that if not for the timely intervention of the former labor leader and governor of Edo state, governor Adams Oshiomole on September 28, more students may have had to contend with the debilitating idleness, and probably end up in the murky waters of crime and criminalities. "The strike action and the governments's insensitivity goes a long way in showing the importance or otherwise of the present government accords its youths," Olusina explains.
It was however not all sordid tales of frustration and anguish. For some like Sade Haastrup, an accounting student at the University of Abuja, it was fun all through. She noted that her part time vocation of catering and events management, received a boost during the period as she had ample time to cultivate fruitful business contacts and interests, as well as updating her computer literacy. 'I was never bored for one moment,' she enthuses. Her close friend and neighbor, Biola Lawal, a student at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria proudly flaunts a wedding ring to all who care to see. She tied the nuptial knots with her heartthrob of many years in late August, when hopes of settlement of the strike action were still sketchy. She explains that the time of the strike afforded them enough time to finalize arrangements for the wedding, which had been kept on hold for several months due to her numerous commitments at school. Interestingly the cessation of hostilities between the federal government and the warring lecturers coincided with the end of her honeymoon with her spouse.
Probably another set of people that inadvertently felt the dreadful pangs of the heated stand off were the business community on the nation's campuses. For many the absence of the students for the period affected their economic fortunes for the duration. Obinna Nwite, who has a mini photocopying business on the campus of UNIABUJA, noted that he was convulsed with elation when the strike was eventually called off indefinitely last week. According to the soft spoken part time student at the same institution, fending for his wife had been a Herculian task during the period the strike action lasted. He says that the students form a larger percentage of his clientele.
Interestingly students were not the only ones left in the lurch during the strike action. Many lecturers also experienced relative hardship as a result of the imbroglio. While a few universities continued the regular payment of salaries for its striking lecturers, many others invoked the controversial 'no work no pay' clause in industrial relations with its workers thereby refusing to pay salaries.
In early September, a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt caught national attention when he was filmed on network new working as a bus conductor in the garden city. When questioned on the rationale behind his unusual action, he retorted: 'hunger respects no one, how do you expect me to feed my family when the government has refused to pay my salary and nobody seems to care as to the direction this strike is taking?'
Abdullai Tanko, a lecturer at the Nassarawa State University says he had to help out at his wife's Internet café business during the prolonged crisis, at least to stay active rather than become a burden. 'It was humiliating, I must confess but it was much better than staying idle. Idleness has never been one of my strong points, you know,' the university don confessed.
Despite the agony engendered by such strikes, a public affairs analyst, Femi Akinlabi says that misfortunes and hardship are necessary evils in struggles, and equally adds that no meaningful progress can be made in any sphere of national life without commensurate casualties. "We are all aware of the numerous problems facing other sectors of our national life. ASUU is only one of them but because of this, should we ASUU give up its fight? I say a categorical No!"
The strike is apparently over at least for now with the battle scarred lecturers, and a reluctant government agreeing to sheathe their fiery swords indefinitely. However the question on the lips of many is this: is there any amount of pacification that can be adequate in calming the frayed nerves of those who the strike affected adversely.
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