13th November, 2014
Harrison Iyoha
Following the comment by Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, in Lagos last week that his ministry is working towards making sure Nigerian universities don’t embark on unnecessary strike again, many students have expressed mixed feelings.
P.M.NEWS Campus Square spoke with some undergraduates on this and their reactions reflected their anger over the statement made by the minister. In a chat with our reporter, Olabode Otolori, a 200- level Engineering student of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, expressed his readiness to hold the minister to his words.
“I have no reason to doubt what the minister wants us to believe but I know time will surely prove him wrong since this is not the first time they are selling stuffs like this to us.
“Do you want to hear the truth? His statement is political. Remember 2015 election is around the corner and they are ready to tell any kind of lie to corner some votes”.
Adeyemi, a 100-level Sociology student of UNILAG, refused to take the minister’s comment seriously. “I am disappointed with his statement. I don’t know why they think they can continue fooling us. Where was he when ASUU went on strike for close to one year?
“What magic do they want to perform now that will be different from what we are already used to? Nothing good can ever come from our politicians and they are never tired of lying to us.
“We know they want us to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term which he badly needs now. We know where this promise is coming from and I know many of my undergraduate friends won’t fall for this.
“He has nothing to offer again because the standard of education in this country is falling by the day. Imagine students failing exams and all blames are on the students without mentioning the corrupt system.”
Another student said: “One of the holy books said it is better to cut the part of our body that causes us to commit sin before it destroys the entire body.
“I believe this is the time to cut off all wrong parts and save the educational body, making a better thing out of it.”
Gbadamosi Adedayo says this is the season of endless lies.
“A season when our politicians make lots of empty promises and when they get to power, they begin to tell us another story contrary to the ones told during electioneering campaign. Well, I’m not surprised because we are in a country being governed with lies,” he said.
Adediran Bukunmi, a 200 level Biological Science student of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU said that the statement from the minister is a good one if only he’s sincere about it and not one of those political promises.
“You need not ask again. It’s a very good one from the Malam, that is, if he can do it though. Well, strike is a total waste of time. I gained admission in 2011. I should be graduating next year but no thanks to the incessant strikes, I can’t even graduate next year.
“It’s so annoying, but unfortunately there’s little I can do about it. If the minister can make the unnecessary strikes stop, then we support him fully. On the other hand, the last thing I want is for lecturers to go on strike anytime soon. But at the same time the government should look into hike in school fees which I think will always lead to strike.”
Shekarau had promised that soon there would be no more strikes in the education sector in Lagos last week during the impact assessment tour of Federal Government-owned institutions in Nigeria.
He said the issue of strike affecting the Nigerian education, especially in the universities, would soon be a thing of the past as his ministry is doing all it could to stop it.