ASUU: How Prolonged Strike Forced Lecturer Into Cab Business

As the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) heads toward seven months, a senior lecturer (name withheld) at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), has resorted to the cab business.

The lecturer who is a renowned department at the university told Daily Post that he had to take up the business to meet his family's needs and perform some commitments.

Speaking to the news outlet, however, former President of Post Graduate Students in UNICAL and former lecturer, Dr Anthony Bissong Attah expressed shock after the lecturer appeared as his bolt cab driver on Monday.

“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 at 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.

“This is so frustrating and depressing. The question is, isn’t it necessary for civil/public servants to engage in multiple streams of income? That’s a discussion for another day.

“The gamut of this discourse is the need to lend a helping hand to all our friends in the academic world who are part of the ongoing university strike. They are passing through very unaccustomed economic crises,” Dr Attah in a ‘Save Our Lecturers' statement said.

The lecturer also expressed regret for rejecting a lecturing job offer in Finland like his c