5 things you can do as a student while the ASUU strike lingers

By Seyifunmi Awobiyi

Today, August 24, 2022, marks 192 days since the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) went on an indefinite strike for most federal universities across Nigeria.

The strike began on Monday, February 14, 2022, the union of varsity teachers announced a ‘warning’ strike in yet another face-off with the Federal Government over, among other issues, low payment of the salaries of lecturers.

Several meetings held to reach an agreement to end the strike between the Federal Government and ASUU have not reached any good terms that can favor both parties.

Since the ASUU’s strike started, many students have been disillusioned, while some youths are slowly turning idle at home. In fact, some students have taken to crimes such as online scams, popularly known as “YAHOO” as a daily job in order to survive. 

Regardless of this backdrop, however, many students are making the best use of this ASUU strike period for several productive purposes. Here are the possible things you can do to keep yourself active pending the time ASUU calls off the strike:

Internship job

As a student, you can take an internship job in an organization of interest. This sometimes can be without pay, but rest assured you could gain valuable work experience. An internship allows you to explore different career opportunities before getting started. So this would be a good opportunity to build yourself and get some knowledge of how the industry works.

All you need to do is prepare your mind; be open to learning new things; ask questions; research companies online and identify individuals, who could link you up for internship opportunities. It will be worth your time and the experience by the time you eventually resume school.

Take Online courses

Although most Nigerian college students would enjoy attending physical lectures, taking online courses could keep their knowledge intact and not be loose until school recontinues. 

The good news is that for every paid online course, there are tons of free courses available online, which are instrumental to launching a profitable career. 

Online courses are so good because you can learn any subject anytime, anywhere you want it. All you need to get will be your mobile devices without having to go out of your comfort. Online courses have been designed in a way that you could multitask while having the classes or just be in your bedroom in your underwear. 

Content creation

Content creation is basically the generation of topic ideas that appeal to an audience persona. It’s the creation of written or visual content and making that information accessible to an audience as a blog, video, infographic, or social media. Content creation is one of the well-paying and highly demanded skills in the contemporary world.

Content creators are curating creative content online and they are being paid on Youtube, Tiktok, Trovo and so many other platforms for showcasing their skills. 

Community service

Community service is not only a way to help yourself, but it is a noble way to make society a better and cleaner place. 

Community service is a better way to increase students’ socially balanced and respect in their respective communities. 

Some of the things you can engage in as an undergraduate is to volunteer to work with civil society organizations or humanitarian service organizations in your community.

You could volunteer to teach in schools to mentor and impact younger people within your community. It is a big one and would imperatively help you in retaining knowledge. 

skill acquisition

Getting into skill acquisition is a good and very good asset to any Youth. In Nigeria where there is a very high rate of unemployment, the citizens survive by the virtue of the skill they possess. A lot of young people leverage skills to feed themselves and take care of their families daily. 

As a matter of fact, there is no limitation to the skills you can acquire as an undergraduate. You can leverage digital skills such as Google digital marketing skills; website design through any content management system (CMS); and other Google design-related courses. Quite interestingly, all these courses are readily available online – for free. 

One of the benefits of going into one of these skills is that it will keep you engaged during the ASUU strike in a short time, while the skill will give you a competitive advantage after graduating from school.