NOW THAT ASUU HAS SPOKEN…

Sometimes, I wonder when the press would approach us students and seek our opinion about ASUU, Academic Staff Union of Universities, their strike and what we need from our revered lecturers…
Now that ASUU has spoken, I think they need to hear our own side of the story....
ASUU should please hold a convention and sensitize their members to stop victimizing us. Let them stop the issue of sexual harassment or sex for mark syndrome. Let them stop asking our female leaders of tomorrow to ‘hold desk’. It’s time all these bad elements be expunged. The four months and some weeks we spent at home aren’t just for fun. We have learnt a lot.
Any lecturer accused and found guilty should be dismissed else we deal with them in whichever way we can because we aren’t helpless and we are no fools or inexperience.
ASUU should be aware that we won’t tolerate bunking of lectures or leaving class unnecessarily or base on any flimsy excuses…I guess the pay they are lamenting over is because of the job they claim to be doing. So, they had better do the job well so that they could show us that they deserve the pay and all the allowances attached to their salaries.
ASUU should also take note of the issue of malpractices their members go into. Instances are when students are being asked to pay so as to pass a course or pay so that you could get your project topic approved and each chapters signed or you pay so that such lecturer  would provide you with a complete project and a grade such student doesn’t deserve. Sighs, some of them even go to the extent of threatening students in class that if they do not buy their books, they would not pass.
ASUU should know that we need their attention. It’s not uncommon for a student to find it difficult to resolve any problem he is facing in school as far as it has to do with lecturers. This is because, lecturers will either send you out of their offices, or tell you they are busy. Some of them even show how unreasonable they are by attending to female students while sending the male students away! Please who are these lecturers here to serve? Themselves? Female students? Or all students? It is so worse that You can’t even approach your course adviser for advice let alone see a lecturer to resolve a problem you have with his course or get your project supervisor’s advice for your project.
ASUU should also tell their members that hard work must be rewarded. Let them know that variety is the spice of life. The idea of GIGO (garbage in garbage out) regarding the way they expect us to answer their?s in unimaginable. It is not every one of us that could cram. Some of us can only read, understand and interprets what they have taught us but with that you wouldn’t get a good mark. Also, if you read extra material for a course and you make reference to it in your exam, you still won’t get a good grade. Were they taught like this during their time? I bet they weren’t.

ASUU should also implore their members to support students’ dreams and aspirations. Let them not set a limit for them. Let them help the student achieve what they couldn’t. That a lecturer didn’t make a first class while in school doesn’t mean he should tell his students that they can’t graduate with honours too. It’s so heart breaking that some lecturers even go out of their way to stop or make difficult for some promising students programmes because of their ego.

ASUU and her members should know that these problems are just some of the problems we have been enduring since post-independence. Also, they should not forget that they are public servants too and the responsibility placed on them is bigger than that of any other public servant. So, let them emulate the behaviours and relationship between lecturers and students of developed countries. As for the money the government gave them, let ASUU use it for what they promised to use it for else, we the Concerned Nigerian Students will not take it easy with them even if NANS as a body is a toothless dog. By doing this, Nigeria’s education sector will breathe a fresh air and everybody that is a member of the sector will experience the change and so will the entire country and the whole world.

Akinpelu, Sherif Lanre

MASS COMM DEPT, UNILAG.