UNILAG students blame NASU for blackout in hostels
The lingering NASU strike is upsetting UNILAG students as non-teaching staff allegedly tamper with hostel light and water supply.
Students in different halls of residence in the university are said to have been sleeping in darkness since the union renewed their agitation on Monday, February 5, 2018.
A student identified as Ebenezer, who spoke to Pulse about the blackout in the university's halls of residence said NASU members recent agitations started on Monday when they went to the school's power station and locked but later opened it in the evening.
He said ever since the issue of the NASU strike started, the union has been disrupting school activities by locking up classes, interrupting lectures and tampering with the school power station to leave the halls of residence in darkness.
''Sometimes, there would be light in the whole school with exceptions of the hostels. They take the light in the morning like 9 am and then restore it back in the evening without giving hostels light'' The student complained.
Wondering why the hostels suddenly become the union's target to express their grievances with the government, Ebenezer said he thought NASU is trying to discomfort the students to get angry to protest and go home so that the government can answer their demands.
Another anonymous student who just completed his post-graduate program in UNILAG also complained that the NASU strike is responsible for the delay in computation of results.
He said the program coordinator of a department said they could not access record portal because of the union's industrial action.
NASU members react to students' allegations
Meanwhile, Pulse spoke with UNILAG NASU members about the blackout in the hostels but the union members said they are not aware of such development in the institution.
One Mr. Ojoniyi, who is said to be a senior NASU officer in the university said he was not on campus and didn't know anything about the blackout in the hostels.
Another NASU member identified as Mr. Senyon said what the students called blackout could be the 'normal' power outage in Nigeria.
'Maybe the light is faulty, as usual, they take light in Nigeria and they restore it back. When I came to work this morning, I met light, it is a normal thing because there has never been 24 hours light anywhere'.
Senyon, however, said the students' claims about the blackout in the hostel is beyond his knowledge as he is not aware of anything like that.
The union member also said that he is not aware if the Non-Academic Staff of Universities are agitating for anything.
Why NASU is on strike
Recall that on Monday, December 4, the Joint Action Committee, JAC comprising of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU and National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT directed its members in all universities across the country to resume their suspended strike.
The union stated in their letter that the strike was necessitated because Federal Government did not clarify the criteria for the disbursement of the N23 billion it approved for the universities to settle earned allowances arrears in October.
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