Market activities paralyzed as ASUP Continues Strike …..Parents, Students lament
Olorunfemi Ojo with additional reports from Kusoro Jeremiah and Ibraheem Gafar
A whole academic session has been wasted as Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, ASUP, failed to reach agreement with the federal government to find a solution to the 10 month-old strike.
investigations by NigerianEcho reporters revealed the strike has paralyzed market activities especially in places where the polytechnic students are the major source of income to marketers.
In Ilaro, the headquarters of Yewa South Local Government, Ogun State, where one of the Federal polytechnics is situated, marketers are aggrieved due to the government’s nonchalant attitude towards solution to the strike.
In an interview with Mrs Kareem, a frozen food seller located at Orita area of Ilaro, she said, “it has been hell for me and my family since the strike started. It has been very difficult for us to eat because the profit made when the poly students are around is relatively high compared to when they are not around which is not even up to one-quarter.”
Mrs Adebokun, who sells snacks and soft drinks in the school’s mini mart said the government is making things worst for her as she has been unable to pay her children’s school fees which has led to them being sent away from school.
She said the government should find lasting solution to the constant strikes, because according to her, her only source of income has been the sales made through the poly students.
Eateries and Bars also lament their record of low sales because the indigenes are not really their source of sales, the manager of Da-Place bar, popularly called Ile-Ijo was over heard saying “Oja oti e ta daa da bi gbati awon student ba wa around(we are not having enough sales unlike when the students are around)
In phone conversations with some of the students, they all pleaded to the government to help secure their future and reach agreement with ASUP. Kofoworola, a student of the department of Mechanical Engineering said “Its been a tough time sitting at home all these while, am even tired of reading, despite the discrimination we do receive, we are not bordered, we also put in our best, but with what the government is doing, I guess the message being passed is that polytechnic is not on the same level with university, those that we entered together are now preparing for their second semester exam but that’s not the case with us here. Government should hastenly find a solution and meet all ASUP demand”, He said.
Recently, Kwara State Police Commissioner, Ambrose Aisabor while parading some suspects in Ilorin raised alarm over alleged involvement of undergraduate students of tertiary institutions in the state in series of criminal acts.
According to the police boss, four of the seven suspects arrested for robbery, were male students of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa.
Elder Daniel Oladipo, a block maker in Ilaro whose son is affected by the strike, appealed to the National Assembly members to wade into the strike issue and safe the country from breeding more criminals. “Available hand is devil workshop”, he said.
However, The Federal Government said the refusal of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) to accept the payment of their N40 billion emolument in two installments was responsible for the lingering strike, but with meetings being held with ASUP by some set bodies and the intervention of the House of Rep members, we hope the strike is called off soon and students get back to classroom.
