A few days ago, the President of Ghana, H.E Akufo Addo, announced the reopening of universities.
Today, all tertiary institutions have admitted freshmen and final year students because the government has put measures in place to create a safe and serene environment for teaching and learning with all Covid 19 protocols intact.
The President’s decision might have excited students of our sister country, Nigeria, to think their universities will be reopened as well to admit freshers while final year students come in to prepare for their final exams.
Unfortunately, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said the universities are not ready to resume because the environments are not safe to accommodate students.
Dr Adeola Egbedokun, the Union’s Chairman, stated that activities ongoing at the premises do not conform to the Covid 19 protocols. Also considering the second wave of the virus, he fears things might get out of hand and claim more lives should students be granted access to the premises.
Furthermore, the union is concerned about the current rise in cases which has already claimed more than a thousand lives. As a result, he said, “we cannot afford to toy with our health and the health of our dear students in the name of resumption, which is politically motivated.”
He added that “there are no preparations for safe re-opening and I think parents must insist on safe re-opening”. His comments have attractive many negative reactions with some asking how long it will take the Nigerian government to adequately prepare their tertiary institutions to accommodate students.
While some students are furious their graduation will delay, others are making fun of the situation with comments like “Curse no dey catch students, so wetin be Covid wey wan catch us. We strong.” The cautious ones are willing to wait on the government for as long as it will take because ” please I am not ready to die. You are ready alone”
To affirm the above statement of the union, Dr Adebayo Oni, one of the state lecturers, expressed great displeasure about some of the ordeals facing the universities. He said, “The lecture halls are overcrowded. As of today on my own campus, I have not seen any facility of hand washing. Do you expect lecturers to provide sanitisers for themselves?”
To cut a long story short, He said, “conducting physical lectures with students will be disastrous”.
