As the strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) continues for an additional eight weeks, a 20-year-old student at the Gombe State University (GSU) has lamented that the strike has forced her into an urgent search for a husband.
Maryam Adamu a 200-level student of Public Administration at GSU, explained in an interview with Daily Sun in Gombe that the strike has messed up her plan and wish of graduating before the age of 20 and that the continued strike and her staying at home have slowly killed her spirit of studying before marriage.
“I cannot take it anymore, our continued staying at home following the shutting down of academic activities since February is not going down well on us, many of us have lost the spirit, as I speak now, if I am to be asked to choose between going back to school and marriage, I would put marriage first,” said the student who further disclosed that she had been carried away by studies and never thought of marrying before graduation.
“This strike has forced me into an urgent search for a husband because that is what I could think of while staying at home with no assignments and studies to keep me busy, most of my friends who had married earlier when marriage was a no-go area for me are today nursing their one or two children and am in a way jealous,” she said.
ASUU and the government can continue with their games, all I care about and am worrying me now is to get married so that I will not fall into things I will end up regretting because I don’t even know what I will be going back to do if schools are to be reopened today, they have killed the vibe in me and so many of school friends, my parents have now picked interest in marrying me out,” she added.
Just like Maryam, Farida Umar Mustapha also groans over the strike stating that apart from missing her books it has also made her jobless as she misses her petty trade in school. The 200-level student of Economics Education at Federal University Kashere (FUK) told Daily Sun that the strike has made her redundant and that she no longer read the way she used to back in the school.
She said: “I use to sale Egg, Milk, Pen and other small-small things in the hostel and that helped and made me somehow less dependent on my parents, but now that the universities are on strike am back at home and that has changed and increased the monthly budget of the family.”
The 21-years-old Farida who now lives with her parents at Maraba in Nasarawa state added that she would also not turn down a marriage proposal if it were to come to her now, she explained that she had planned to open the door for marriage after graduating or when she gets to the final year of her studies.
“My thoughts were that I will not marry till after graduation or when am in 400 level, but I don’t think I can wait, I will welcome any man that comes for me now while waiting for when schools will reopen,” she said.
Meanwhile, 26-years-old Saminu Auwal who was studying Computer Science at GSU also shared that the constant disruptions of academic activities in public universities have opened his eyes to a new way of being gainfully employed even as he disclosed that the strike has a great and daring impact on students.
He said: “Only if they will understand that and leave the students out of their unending face-off”. He told Daily Sun that becoming a computer scientist had always been his dream, but he is now a rice, maize and beans farmer in Kembu community in Akko Local Government Area (LGA) of Gombe state.
He said: “at first I was disappointed by the closure of my school, GSU due to the strike, but I was later happy because it has given me time and the opportunity to think outside my box, now I have found other means of sustaining myself even if am back to school, I can now mix between farming and studying.
However, he added saying: “But, to be candid it is frustrating and very painful to wake up every day and hear that the government and the union are unable to resolve their crisis”.
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