The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) has announced a date for classes to resume.
The institution declared the start of academic activity on October 24 in a bulletin issued following a Senate meeting on Wednesday.
However, lectures for undergraduate students start on January 3rd, nine weeks after the start date.
The school scheduled the first nine weeks after October 24 for the completion of student registration, consideration of outstanding results by the Standing Committee, Post Graduate examination seminar and external examinations, Christmas and New Year holidays, and so on.
Undergraduate students at the university, who have remained at home during the eight months of the lecturers' strike, have voiced their discontent with the prolonged calendar.
Lamenting the extended calendar, a student of the school, Mustapha Ahmed, said after eight months of students’ solidarity with the lecturers’ action, their reward was an additional ‘waste of time.’
“More reasons why students don’t support the so-called strike. All these tactics are to see whether the outstanding salary will be paid or not. How many PG students protested as we demonstrated it’s so heartbreaking …” he wrote on Facebook.
Another student, Solomon Ameh, lamented that the extension meant he could not be part of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) when he finally graduated. “…but this isn’t fair to us. My 5 years course ID expires next year and I am still in first semester 300 Level. This calendar isn’t friendly to us. Some of us can’t serve because of this calendar,” he wrote.
Most Nigerian universities that have announced resumption dates, in the aftermath of the ASUU Strike, are to resume academic activities immediately.
ASUU has maintained that the strike was suspended in obedience to the ruling of the industrial court and that it would pursue the case with the government.
The lecturers’ eight months’ salaries have also not been paid, as the government is yet to shift grounds on its No Work, No Pay stance.