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As IG Bans FSARS, what next for Nigerian youth with ASUU still on 7-month strike

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<p><&excl;-- BEGIN THEIA POST SLIDER --><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"B2MewilK" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"c5bUmT89" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p><strong>By Alhassan A&period;  Bala<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Though since the coming of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;google&period;com&sol;search&quest;q&equals;President&plus;Muhammad&plus;Buhari&plus;administration&percnt;2C&amp&semi;oq&equals;President&plus;Muhammad&plus;Buhari&plus;administration&percnt;2C&amp&semi;aqs&equals;chrome&period;&period;69i57&period;5827j0j4&amp&semi;sourceid&equals;chrome&amp&semi;ie&equals;UTF-8">President Muhammad Buhari administration&comma;<&sol;a> there&&num;8217&semi;s arguably no protest that succeeded in bringing the attention of the president&comma; while many protesters have been harassed&comma; tear-gassed and some ended up in the police net&period;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"8iUltCHU" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;" &NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"6550225277"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even the once-powerful Nigeria Labour Congress&comma; NLC&comma; could not organize a successful protest or strike&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The &num;Revolution Now protest was one of the protests that were cracked down by the police&comma;  with so many counter protests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For the &num;BringBackOurGirls movement&comma; one can imagine that it is no longer in existence&comma; as only a few newspapers &lpar;Daily Trust and Peoples Daily&rpar;  keep the record and give a daily reminder&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad3" id&equals;"quads-ad3" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;nigeriantracker&period;com&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;07&sol;kano-university-promotes-17-academic-staff-to-the-rank-of-professors&sol;">Kano University promotes 17 academic staff to the rank of Professors<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For others like &num;FreeZakzaky&comma; protests are still ongoing in most northern states and the FCT&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Lest I forget&comma; there is another group of protesters from the northwestern region due to banditry&comma;  kidnapping&comma; and other security challenges&comma; but the leaders of the protest were summoned to Abuja and detained for some days&comma; which months later no any word from that northern group again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The EndSARS protest began last week after a video emerges and went viral of how the officers of the unit brutalized some innocent youth&comma;  which the Nigerian youth said is a daily occurrence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And in a rather unusual swift reaction&comma; the Inspector General of Police&comma; Muhammad Adamu on Sunday afternoon disbanded the FSARC which now brings an end to FSARS that the Nigerian youth have been protesting about&period;  Could this bring an end to the almost two weeks protest by the Nigerian youth&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Is it not time to focus on education now&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Education is one of the most important areas every country that wants to develop give priority to&comma; but since independence did Nigeria give the needed priority to education&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The coming of private universities can be described as a good development due to the increasing population and the few public universities but can the quality of education be compared between the two&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since the military regime of the former head of state&comma; Ibrahim Babangida&comma; the Academic Staff Union of Universities&comma; ASUU&comma; has been going on strike due to one agitation or another&comma; though there was a break concerning strike until after the return of democracy in the year 1999&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since that year&comma; a strike by ASUU has become an annual occurrence with the exception of 2004&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The strike is affecting the academic calendar each year with an extending year of graduation of hundreds of thousands of Nigerian students&comma; not to talk of how it is affecting the quality of education the students ought to get due to the crash program of the calendar by the lecturers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;nigeriantracker&period;com&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;05&sol;asuu-lament-non-payment-of-5-months-salary-at-unm&sol;">ASUU lament non-payment of 5 months’ salary at UNM<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 2020 indefinite strike embarked upon by the ASUU was because of federal government insistence that all federal government workers must enroll in IPPIS&comma; which ASUU kicked though some few members had since enrolled&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The union insisted that its members will not enroll while even in his budget presentation speech president Buhari insisted that only those enrolled will be paid salary&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The popular saying always goes &&num;8220&semi;if two elephants are fighting the grass suffers&comma;&&num;8221&semi;  FG and ASUU are the elephants while students and their parents remain the grass who are still suffering&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thanks to the banning of FSARS now those involved in the protest online and on the streets were majorly university students who have been at home for over 7 months due to the ongoing ASUU strike&period; Will they now start a protest to &num;EndASUU strike just as they succeeded in the &num;EndSARS&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If they are to start who will they support&colon; the government or the ASUU&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If they support the government and defeat ASUU they should be ready to pay more in their school fees as no visiting lecturer will go free of charge&period; Which subsequently the children of the poor may not be able to attend to public universities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The opposition parties and other civil society organizations are keeping mute on the ASUU strike&comma; but why is it so&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Many leaders of the opposition politician either have private school or their children study or are studying abroad&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And for most of the civil society activists&comma; most of the protests they are leading were sponsored or bankrolled by some people that have an interest&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And if they support the government there are all possibilities that the suspension of the strike will only be a break&comma;  as the government is always breaking her promise with many unions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What will the students do now&quest; As there is no indication of calling off of the strike as the major actors still hold on to their grounds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Who is right between the Government and the ASUU&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>How can Nigeria university students compete with their counterparts from other countries&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But while I am asking these questions&comma;  I also asked myself who can or will answer them&quest; Only time will tell&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This piece is written by Alhassan A&period;  Bala&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>President&comma; National Association of Islamic Studies Students UniAbuja and Abuja based broadcast journalist&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He can be reached via balahassan2007&commat;gmail&period;com<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;-- END THEIA POST SLIDER -->&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad5" id&equals;"quads-ad5" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"autorelaxed" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1004305389"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

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