ASUU: Senior Lecturer In Renowned University Resorts To Cab Driving To Survive

A senior lecturer at the University of Calabar, UNICAL, (name withheld) has reportedly resorted to cab driving in a bid to make ends meet due to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Naija News recalls that ASUU had gone on strike since February 14 2022 and negotiations between both the Federal Government and the association have several times ended in deadlock.

According to Daily Post, the lecturer, who is the head of a renowned department in UNICAL, said that he had to look for a way to feed his family and resolve other obligations hence his decision to become a cab driver.

A former President of Post Graduate Students in UNICAL and a former lecturer, Dr Anthony Bissong Attah, was shocked when he encountered him yesterday after calling for a cab to pick him to a destination.

Attach subsequently made a  ‘Save Our Lecturers’ statement after the encounter.

He wrote: “I had a very emotional experience today. I ordered a Bolt cab this morning to catch up with an engagement somewhere in Calabar. When the cab driver arrived to pick me up, he remarked that I look like one of his colleagues in the University.

“I do know a lot of UNICAL lecturers. This Bolt driver mentioned quite a number of my friends and people I’ve interfaced in the University.

“I shudder to note that a university don can involuntarily become a cab driver. This is not to contemplate that it’s wrong for a lecturer to be a chauffeur. No, not at all. I’m however concerned that an avoidable circumstance has pushed these lecturers into a hurriedly contrived alternative source of livelihood.”

Speaking further, Attah bemoaned the state of the nation, adding that the situation in the country has made it mandatory for civil/public servants to have multiple streams of income.

He went on to call on people to lend a helping hand to those in the academic world who are experiencing the strike as they need help to survive.