Strike: A Wrong Approach To Nigeria's Educational Problems (Volume 1)

By Adetula David

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said and i quote; "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that"


Strike is defined by Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary as the refusal to work as a protest. The online free encyclopedia, Wikipedia put it in a more refined way by saying, strike action is work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. It goes further to say, a strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. The strike discussed in this piece is not different from the fore-mentioned. Its just that it is restrained to the educational sector of Nigeria. Some Nigerians however described strike as an annual festival whereby students are not allowed to go to school. To a very large extent, the defination is right as it has become a 'norm' for the occurrence of work halt in at least once in a section in the education sector in the country within the twelve months in a calendar year.


Strike action definately has its pros and cons which i am going to critically analyse in course of this piece. However, this write-up is intended to show reasons and logically conclude that strike is a wrong approach to the educational problems in our dear nation Nigeria as it is widely believed by many.


When a strike is initiated by the work force, it is always known to be a fierce battle between the employer and the employees; the government and the association under which the workers are registered. The 'suffering grass' whenever these two elephants clash are the students who are directly at the receiving end of the imbroglio. Thus, leaving several damages on the students whenever such occurs.


Among several effects of strike include time wastage and unnecessary delays. The most saddening aspect of the strike action atimes is that the reason why it is being initiated is not really worth it. Thereby, leading to a battered academic calendar. A disrupted academic calendar definately gives birth to the shrinking of activities when the school resumes in order to meet the set target for that session. This affects the students adversely in terms of their performances in tests and exams since they never expected such changes. Not only this, unemployment is a 'time-bomb' for graduates that were repeatedly affected by strike during their student days. This is caused by their inability to meet up with the set requirements. Most jobs these days are tied to age limit, so graduates that have overstayed mostly owing to no fault of theirs, become too old for jobs of their dream. This is quite pathetic!


Students engagement in non-fruitful and criminal activities have been the case during strikes. Like the popular adage says "an idle mind is the devil's workshop" some students are drawn into nefarious acts during this period which are capable of destroying them and unleashing terror on the peace of the nation. Aside this, some students become social network veterans, some turn into statues of idleness, bunch of parrots, backbitters, gossipers and busy bodies while some turn themselves into sleeping bags as if been bitten by tse-tse fly. They eat as if life is all about eating. This set of students you see in schools after the strike with voluminous body mass blessed with unnecessary fats(perhaps with no shape), all these against their wishes.


The  Loss of  credibility is a grave danger applicable to our schools as a result of incessant strikes. Its quite unfortunate these days that only few foreigners will prefer to send their wards to study here in Nigeria as a result of the back drops from strikes while we move our children en-mass to schools abroad thereby exporting the fund that is supposed to be expended locally to economically add values to our system. What about the psychological effects of strike on students? A psychologist and lecturer, Department of Educational Foundation, University of Lagos, Dr Sola Aletan explained that the unplanned breaks definately affect students negatively. He compared this scenario to when an athlete running a 400metres race is abruptly stopped when he started the race, he said such situation affects the athlete greatly and will take time for him/her to regain his/her speed and confidence as it was levelled before. Same thing applies to students that are sent away from schools due to strike.{1} These and many other damping effects of strike are what students are exposed to.


Funny enough, the bad effects of strikes are not 'enjoyed' only by students that have been deprived of their right to education, the striking workers too share part of the experience. Workers feel the nostalgia with a tinge of guilt, arising from shrinked responsibilities. Though thesame work force called for the strike, but i can tell you that not all its members are always in full support of the action. Also, academic workers who are still in their 'evolving process' too get affected during strikes. Example of this are the postgraduate students that lecture in universities. ASUU strike also grounds their study.


Unfortunately, no one is talking about the poor masses that worked in the closed environment. I mean the motorcyclists, drivers, traders, tailors, carpenters and others that make ends meet by their activities in the academia. Most of these people are below-average Nigerians that have family members who look up to them to survive owing to the penny they get from their toil in the now closed academic community. Now subjected to unemployment and poverty that will not even be make-up for when the strike is over unlike in the case of the academic workers that get paid even when they refuse to work. Too bad!


Unknowingly, even the erring government that has failed to accede to the demands of these workers is not safe too from the impasse. Prof. Umukoro of Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan wrote in one of his articles that was featured in The Guardian Newspaper dated Wed. Oct. 21, 2009 that "no nation anywhere in the world can rise above the quality of its tertiary education. Show me your universities, and I shall tell you what type of nation you are", this clearly emphasizes the importance of an academic calendar devoid of unnecessary breaks. All sectors of our national life are largely dependent on education. The future of the nation are the young sharps currently in schools and as such, the kind of education policies put in place now dictate the quality of life experienced and their performances later on when they spread to all sectors of the economy thereby re-affirming the centrality of education to national development. The effects of strike will obviously jeopardize the dream of having a great posterity who will be better leaders. This long-term effect on the nation is unfortunately not critically assessed.


To be continued...