To resume or not to resume
By the time we had crossed the 4 months mark, it dawned on University students that the promised total, indefinite, comprehensive and suffocating strike will be inevitably delivered. Alternatives for productivity, personal and professional development, and, of course, financial stability became priority.
The result was an increase in digital skill acquisition, a rise in the number of social media entrepreneurs, change in marital statuses, non-academic CV optimization, more freelancers, transition to ‘new dispensations’, and not-to-be-forgotten, the birth of more affiliate marketers. This is why upon resumption, you realised that some of your course-mates have grown thicker necks, bulging tummies, flash new rides, and flaunt ringed fingers.
However, in the midst of this status change, many students have been seriously demoralized, having undergone unpleasant experiences during the strike. Those that were not affected by the unsavoury economic condition were cut down by unfettered banditry. Remember the Owo church massacre, the train attack, the recent interstate flood that have crippled finances, destroyed properties, and erased the faces of our loved ones permanently from the Earth’s surface.
While the tussle between ASUU and FG lasted, the idea of resumption for many students was met with mixed feelings. There were those anticipating resumption, those who saw the strike as an opportunity for other ventures and silently hoped for continuity, and the indifferents, who don’t care either way. Notwithstanding, the suspension of the strike was jolting to most of us and even the doubting Thomases were reassured by the release of the academic calendar.
But at certain points, we’ve stopped to ponder; what are we resuming to? – to complete what we’ve started. Or for fresh students – to rediscover where the first step in the university journey should be placed. But what kind of life are we returning to? – erratic power supply resulting in lack of water in halls of residence. Case in point, Idiates, who woke up into a new week to realise that except they go on an ‘ultimate water search’ outside their hall they most probably won’t have their baths. All these, coupled with an academic workload that doesn’t care one bit?
Added to this campus-based-worries is the bigger issue of economic hardships peppered by the insensitivity of the political class. Insecurity, to which some returning students have become victims of. This is why to some, resumption to public universities is out of the question as they have found recourse to private or foreign institutions where their graduation year is predictable.
To the majority that cannot afford these alternatives, you either return to where you’ve started or forget about schooling. Either way the world moves on. And it has moved to this point of return to academics. Perhaps, in the contemplation of it all, it is best to keep hopes in our dreams while we come to terms with the realities of the now.
