By Osarennoma Ogbeide
It’s been 9 months away from school. Long enough for my fellow course mate to become a father, long enough for most students to forget what it actually feels like to be a student, long enough to forget course codes and names of lecturers, long enough for people to move on and apply to other schools, long enough for jambites to forget they’ve actually been admitted, long enough for our juniors in other private institutions to graduate before us, long enough for us to be denied jobs because we don’t have certificates to present, long enough for any student to be frustrated with the system.
Initially, our hopes were raised whenever we heard or knew there was to be a meeting between the two parties in question, but with the frequency of “the meeting ended in deadlock”, if not all students, I for one have become numb to the agreed disagreement thatis ever so glaring between them.
Some Nigerian students have been able to pick up new skills and acclimatize with the uncomfortable times. However, this is not the story of all. A good percentage of students are wallowing in premature joblessness because their lack of evidence of academic completion is a hindrance, others are discouraged because the clamour of learning new skills these past months has left them spending more than they earn. Still, some are limited by resources available to them, preventing them from pursuing their chosen path.
All these coupled with other irregularities this year has brought is nothing short of devastating. However, it’s also a year that the youth have shown they are strong willed. Despite the countless obstacles this strike has placed in our way, we are determined to scale through each hurdle, proving that we are still ones with promising futures; Time will tell.
Until then, we truly hope that once all academic bodies and the government have resolved pending issues, it will be the last we ever hear of. This is a sacrifice we started paying even before we realized, but it’s one we’re willing to endure to save future generations.
For now, this is our story- we came, we are still seeing and we’re yet to conquer.
