The serial Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike has lured many students into discovering their talents. Although some of them are using their time in some other positive ways, the students admit they are not happy, staying at home or getting trapped in university programmes they don’t know when they would end.

Most students forced out of schools by the strike use their time potentially. Such students look more like traders or artisans and unless one is told, they are easily mistaken for businesspersons that have nothing to do with the university.
In a discussion with Miss Favour Eze, a 200 level student of business administration in the Ebonyi State University, who deals in ladies shoes and sandals to survive the strike, she said: “Since the strike started, things have been so difficult for me, and staying at home is not the best. Since I am not in school, my parents don’t give me any financial allowances so, I decided to engage in this little trading that I started with some money I had.
Eze knows what she does is just a stop-gap measure, so she still longs to go back to school and said: “I am pleading with ASUU and the government to resolve their differences and call off the strike because I believe I have much talent apart from this business. I still have two more years to complete my course, and if I continue this way I will be tempted to do the unthinkable.”
But she has not gone into this venture without a benefit. She said: “I still thank God for this wonderful opportunity because it has exposed me to the skills of making money. Normally, if one is not in school, parents hardly give any financial assistance but now I can boast of my own money and if the strike is called off, I will be going back to school with more money than my parents would have given me. But right inside me, I am not happy because I am supposed to be preparing for my second semester examinations now.
Juliet Ani, a two hundred level student of Accountancy in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology disclosed the effect of the ASUU strike on her academics. “But all the same the strike brought a positive impact in my life.”  According to Juliet, she assists her brother who deals in electronic gadgets at the Utako Market. She issues tellers to customers, with the experience she acquired, she can manage a business of her own and she is equally making profit from the part time engagement. If the strike had not taken place, she said she wouldn’t have had this opportunity. All the same she looks forward to the day the government would reconcile with ASUU for the strike to be over because she believes that with her certificate in view, she has prospect for a better job and future than what she does now.
Further findings Abuja Metro made revealed that about 30% of the undergraduates dislodged from the universities in Abuja use their time wisely to wait for the ASUU strike to be over, while the rest, who are actually in the majority could not find anything to keep busy.
Michael Peters, a four hundred level student at the University of Abuja said that since the ASUU strike began, he has been at home doing nothing. At times he will be tempted to pilfer some money from his father because he no longer gets allowances unlike when he was in school.
While some girls are into runs, they use what they have to get what they want. Patricia Onyekwelu a three hundred level student of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria Nsukka said that instead of whiling away her time with her friends who are into runs, she decided to commit her time to her industrial training. She also works in a beauty salon where she learns to make hair, so that even if the strike is called off she can apply that to make money in school to sustain her education.
But all the students Abuja Metro spoke with have one message in common – that the FG and ASUU should resolve the difference so that they can go back to school