NASU STRIKE: Hostel Occupants Take Laws into Their Own Hands - My School Aid

13/01/2018

NASU STRIKE: Hostel Occupants Take Laws into Their Own Hands


Since the Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), alongside Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) went on an indefinite strike on the 7th of December 2017, students of the University of Uyo have been feeling the extraordinary usefulness of the non-academic staff and senior staff of the university. Most students have been unable to complete their registration processes, and some others have been feeling the impact of the joint strike in many other different ways.

Most pronounced is the despicable state of the hostels in the university. Just recently, the hostels faced a chronic lack of water and light, such that students had to wake up as early as 4:00am so as to take their baths; the water in the hostel finished at exactly 7:00am, so those who weren’t early risers had no choice than to go to classes and other places without brushing or bathing (although, some students who were courageous enough entered into the school premises to fetch water from other sources).


In addition to the lack of light and water, the hygiene of the hostel was also in a sorry state: toilets were left unflushed, bathrooms were used without being cleaned and the general look of the hostels was unbecoming. However, in the male hostel (commonly known as M2), things changed this morning.

The hall chairman, Bossman (as he was commonly called), circulated an internal memorandum to do a general sanitation of the hostel. The sanitation started at about 5:30am and ended at about 9:00am. Every nook and cranny corner in the hostel was cleaned to a sparkle; the dustbins were taken out, floors mopped and even the toilets were cleaned!

After the sanitation, we spoke with some students and they confirmed that they were happy to partake in cleaning up their environment, instead of waiting for the non-academic staff to come back from strike and do their duty. One student, commonly identified as Kant, said “hostel portals should not follow NASU to go on strike because when they come back, na dem go suffer am pass”.