Barely a week after Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike, commercial activities in Bayero University Kano (BUK) has crumbled.
The strike is as a result of the failure of the government to implement the agreement it signed with the union since 2009.
When Kano Chronicle visited the commercial center in the university, it observed that the centre, popularly called Coke Village, was deserted as business activities were scanty.
Some of the traders, who spoke to reporters, attested that the industrial action had affected their businesses negatively, appealing to both government and ASUU to sheath their swords and resolve their differences.
Abdul Rahim Abdurrahman, who operates an internet café, told our reporters that the strike has crippled his business as students had stopped coming to his shop for typing, photocopy and printing of documents since the commencement of the strike.
“The fact that the school is on vacation, still there are other students who are writing projects, post graduates and master students are also attending their classes and they do patronize our businesses. Now that the strike is going on the students writing their projects and the postgraduate students cannot continue, because no one will attend to them.
“If the strike should continue, I think every person that does business within the university community will bear the consequences. As for me, this is the only business I rely upon for survival, so I am appealing to ASUU and federal government to return to discussion table for dialogue in order to find a solution to the strike,” he said.
Mallam Iliya Idris, who sales vegetables said the strike was affecting his business badly, because most of the people that patronize his business had left the school.
“I sell tomatoes, pepper, carrot, cucumber and other things, and all these require fast buying and if people fail to buy them, they easily get spoil and now that the students have left the school, only few people that remained behind buy these items.
“This is my only means of survival and through it I feed my family and also pay the children school fees. If this strike continues, I have no any option left than to stop this business,” he said.
Similarly, Matthew Oyenma, who operates a restaurant, said since the strike begun, his business had dwindled as the daily sales had decreased, noting that he use to go to market once in a week since the commencement of the strike unlike before when he goes to market twice or thrice in a week.
Speaking with the Secretary of Association of BUK commercial bike riders, Yakubu Yaro, said the main source of their survival depend on the population of students in the school.
“Our main work is to carry students from one place to another within the university, and now that the strike is going on, I think we might stop coming here or at least five people will stay in the school out of three hundred bike riders we have in this association.
“I urge the federal government to consider the ASUU demands because the strike does not only affect us but it also affect everybody in general,” he said,
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