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”.