By OKAI JEREMIAH and EZE LOUIS
The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASSU) had on Sunday embarked on a nationwide strike, which has reportedly grounded academic activities in about 80 federal and state universities across the country, over the failure of the Federal Government to implement the 2009 agreement between the two parties.
It is on this ground that students of University of Jos students were made to vacate the school premises by the university management.
The University of Jos, under the command of ASUU, put a halt to all academic activities in the University on the Thursday 17th of August as against the hope that the academic union would give consideration to universities writing examinations, especially the University of Jos who just had two days to finish all examinations but the UniJos ASUU chapter insisted on a total halt to academic activities by driving students out of examination halls and confiscating examination materials.
Though departments like mass communication, theatre arts, and a few other departments were able to finish their exams, the entire faculty of pharmaceutical sciences could not even reach halfway being that they usually start their examinations two weeks into regular examination period.
A student of the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences identified simply as Andy told UniJos Echo that on the 16th of August, Wednesday, students from the faculty of pharmacy were chased out of the examination hall without being allowed to complete the ongoing paper.
The Department of Economics did not complete its examinations as the strike caught up with the students in the examination hall. Jemimah Dachan, a student of the department noted that this action contradicted the popular notion of students that ASUU would allow the schools in examination period to conclude before striking.
Students who reside in the hostel complained to UniJos Echo through the senator representing Abuja hostel B block, Umeh Jonathan, that after the strike had been enforced, the electricity situation in the hostel moved from excellent to poor. Electricity in the hostel has always been stable up until the announcement of the nationwide strike he noted.
Photo Credit: OKAI JEREMIAH and EZE LOUIS
