In spite of the call-off of
strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) three weeks ago and the official resumption last week by authorities of the University of Port Harcourt, Choba, lectures are yet to commence in the institution.
Our reporter who visited the three campuses of the university said few students were seen loitering about.
A final year student of the Economics Department, Mr. Ben Ovie said, “we are supposed to start lectures on January 6th but lecturers are yet to show up.”
Another student, Mrs Juliet Nwogu, a 200 level student of Anatomy who was seen sitting at the lecture hall told The Tide that she was supposed to have a lecture at 8am but the lecturer did not also show up.
“ASUU suspended its strike in December and since then, we have not had lectures though the timetable is out, full academic activities would commence this week,” she said.
Commenting on the situation, a lecturer of the Department of Marketing, Dr. Sunny Aje, confirmed that the new academic calendar for the second semester 2012/2013 had been released but disclosed that serious teaching and learning would begin this week.
“According to him, many students would resume this week as some of the students were still waiting for their parents to settle them financially,” he said.
It would be recalled that the Public Relations Officer of UNIPORT, Dr. Williams Wodi confirmed that resumption of academic activities began Monday last week after the Christmas and New Year holidays.
It is expected that, having lost much time, full activities would begin immediately to enable them cover so much ground lost during the ASUU strike.

Chris Oluoh

L-R: Vice Chancellor, Kaduna State University, Prof. Williams Quirx, Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State, Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Muhammed Ali and Chairman, Kaduna State House Committee on Education, Mr Yusuf Zalani, at the inauguration of Kaduna State University buses in Kaduna last Friday.