The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike is grating badly on the nerves of students who have been on the receiving end of the impasse between the government and the university teachers. It’s been six months since ASUU went on strike and both parties are yet to reach an agreement. Constant strikes have a negative impact on students and the quality of education in Nigeria, hence, the need to find a lasting solution to ASUU strike.

For the umpteenth time now, students are expressing their frustration with the prolonged ASSU strike, using the #EndASUUStrike trend on social media to make their voices heard. But it appears that no one is listening to them. Many people who have passed through Nigeria’s public university system will understand the negative impact strike actions have on students because they can relate to the students’ plight.

Among other things, some of the most common effects of strike actions on Nigerian students are:

Loss of interest in continuing their education

During the strike period, some students secure jobs that they may find difficult to leave for fear of losing their source of income as such jobs may not be easy to get after graduation.

A drop in the quality of students’ performance

For those who are able to resume after the strike is called off, it might sometimes be an uphill task to catch up and keep up with the quality of their academic performance before the strike because many brains would have gone rusty by then.

Students spend more time than necessary for a four or five-year course

Unlike their counterparts in private universities, many students in public schools end up spending more years than they bargained for as undergraduates when ideally, they would have joined the labour force.

A spike in stress levels

Many students also express heightened stress levels when they are left idle during the strike period. Idleness may also result in youth unrest and an increased crime rate that negatively impacts on society.

Academic tourism

Constant strikes also encourage academic tourism among students who go to neighbouring countries like Ghana and Benin Republic to continue their education. According to research, 90 per cent of students in Benin Republic universities are Nigerians.

On the other hand, strike actions also have a negative impact on the quality of education in Nigeria because it demotivates lecturers from giving their best to students and in turn, it will tell on the quality of students Nigerian public universities produce.

Strike actions have nothing positive about them. And while the masses bear the brunt of every strike action, politicians enrol their children in schools abroad to give them quality education. This is a very unfair advantage they have over others and if nothing is done about it, ASUU strike and all its attendant problems will persist.

But if laws are instituted to prohibit political office holders from sending their children on academic tourism, it may serve as a possible solution to getting them to pay attention to the educational sector.

How Nigerians are reacting:

Dear ASUU, I want you to understand that you're not helping us (students) by this strike action, you claim to be doing it for our good, if you really care about us, you have to call it off please, because the FG is not going to respond, they don't care about us.?#EndASUUStrike

— F A A R E E S ? (@MFaarees_) September 30, 2020

If na you be govt, u too would have been tired of Asuu and they constant blackmail….haba, every time Asuu will be making demands, but yet u don't see Changes in our uni

— Zed (@JulaybeebSAL) September 30, 2020

Wow. So you mean ASUU is blackmailing the government?

I just hope you take a little stroll to google and check out the meaning of the word blackmail.

A government who signed an agreement by herself since 2009 and has reneged on it. This is 11 years after. THERE WAS A COUNTRY

— AGUBUCHE CHIEMERIE (@MEGRIMOR) September 30, 2020

The supposed agreement if 2009..tell me haven't the govt been paying to Asuu in bits? Cos we know couple of time Asuu went on their Almighty strike, govt gives them money in billions, all those pay they have received in the past can they even account for it???

— Zed (@JulaybeebSAL) September 30, 2020

Dear Mr @MEGRIMOR as a lecturer you should never respond to students on this street, its quite toxic and they will never see from your perspective. They have no idea what's going on and are not willing to hear the truth.

— Abu Fadeel (@shamoobee) September 30, 2020

I'm tired of subscribing for Netflix, Data bundle, watching TVdramas and the chat sef wlh?? All i need now is school to reopen kawai

— I'm Mahmoud II?? (@Mahmoud__jr) September 30, 2020

Like you said "they don't care". ASUU put their interest first before any other thing. The students interest are supposed to be first , every year we must observe strike, Habba!, #EndASUUStrike

— Ahmed Meliga??✊? (@ai_meliga) September 30, 2020

Let them be on the strike to eternity we don't care also, education is not a key to success but the beginning of depression in this country.

— Esv Musa (@Musaabk34) September 30, 2020

Well said.
I feel going to school, getting good grades so you’d get a good job is old fashioned and we’re yet to realize that.

— #MGWV (@Thin_Kvng) September 30, 2020

Education is the bed rock of any sane society, for the unprivileged children it's the hope of a better future, if you take that hope from them what else do they have, what plans can they make to make it out of their slums, education is a basic right for all.. #EndASUUStrike pic.twitter.com/x6lnKoedxT

— #endsars stop killing us (@AdelekeFafure) September 30, 2020