The Academic Strike and What You Should Do

What a melancholy! What a catastrophe! That Nigerian Universities are again on nationwide strike is so heart throbbing but this is not the first. That your University joined the strike action, making you haplessly sitting at home shouldn’t be a benny on your own side, rather consider it a grist to the mill.

I won’t deceive you that this is an opportunity neither am I persuading you believing what am trying to emphasize will be beneficial. There are motivations all around us that could be cited as examples. And one among those is Pass.ng, Lagos. The NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) was a brilliant idea from its CEO, founder (Sam Abioye, late), the co-founder Oluyemi Oluwaseun and Abayomi Akanji. The trio used the 2013 strike action which lingered six months to their advantage, the three once-a-ladokites implemented the idea and started running the company remotely in their lecturer’s office. The motion of the company is to revolutionize Nigeria academic situation and catapult its standing to the greatest summit with their efficient resources and materials. There are many examples that could be cited but I choose not to bore you with words.

 

Come to think of it, there are many things that you have been dying to know or to do, many places you have wanted to visit. You can’t just hold still and do less while time lapses, make a move. And who knows, the strike action may be called off tomorrow, yes! And anytime might be tomorrow so you have to do something now.

What should you do while the going is good?

1.     If you are a voracious reader, a bookish and being home you have already read and re-read all those old books at home so you are now sleeping and eating, life now seems like a cabin fever, sure it is but it is not boring to some folks but I bet it will. I dare you go online and download the fantastic electronic books (e-books) and other prominent and resourceful materials, all for free and some for tokens. I would recommend you visit this list of websites/links:

• Free Ebooks
• Book Boon
• Library Genesis
• Free Book Spot
• Free Books
• Many Books
• Open Library
• LibriVox
• Scribd
• Getfreeebooks
• Baen
• e-Library

 

You can search for more via any search engine of your choice. Get any word translator in place on your smartphone or PC. Those words translators can be Adobe Reader (for both PC and smartphones) or WPS (for android). Install the application(s) and proceed opening the file(s). Happy reading! I hope you learn a lot. May I advise you to do one thing as you read along? Get a website registered even if it is a free hosted website just like WALEXMOTIVATES’. So what do you do with the website? Make sure you understand everything about any book you are reading, write some interesting review about the books (each and every book you read, one post per review of a book) on the website, tell your friends (social media friends, regular friends and offline friends) and neighbor about your website. You won’t know when your passion will gradually be paying off. Sure you can do it but you don’t know how? Actually this post is not for that. If you are in need of my assistance regarding that simply blast me a mail via aoadesola1@gmail.com or send your message filling in the “Contact Us” contact form by clicking here.

2.     Being an artisan is what interest you more? If you love beads and you don’t know how to work with one then the strike period is for you to satisfy your urge. You can simply learn with your phone for free, just head straight to Youtube or Google and search for the bead-based tutorials. If you want a quick progress then Youtube is your friend, just make sure you are having the materials with you whenever you are streaming the tutorial contents. What could pose a problem is getting the right materials I guess, so you should try your best in getting a so-close pieces of materials. If you want to be really good in the bead making stuff then I advise you trace someone who knows the pros and cons, probably in your neighborhood, it might even be your friend. Do anything possible in your capabilities to make the person surrender.

Apart from bead making, there are people who make good income in their respective area of specialization such as tailoring, cake baking, tying-and-dying, photo shooting (which can be carefully learnt online), drawing (this can also be easily learnt online most especially on Youtube, Udemy, Shaw Academy etc), tiling, crafting, house painting, barbing/hair dressing, interior decoration etc.

Most of the above mentioned cannot be easily learnt online unless you are having someone to boss you along. Just go and learn from the professionals.

In contrary to gender stereotype, the above mentioned few skills can also be obtained by guys and ladies.

I know by now that someone reading this is already engaged doing something creative and meaningful. So if you are the type who find it difficult to make a quick decision, it is better you get yourself together now and do something that makes you happy or something you will later appreciate doing.

3.     So you are an aspiring programmer? There are a lot of free and paid online tutorials, you have your choice. If you are going into this you should clear your conscience that you are not good in arithmetics, logics or probably you are not a science/computer science student, all those are excuse. And also don’t think of it as something difficult though you are currently a “noob” in this thing, you never know you when will become a guru one day so just go for it. Below are the list of recommended websites you can opt to code your brain.

• Udemy
• Codecademy
• Edx
• Sololearn
• Coursera
• Agupie Ware
• Github
• Code Avengers
• MIT- Massachusetts Institute of Technology    
• Hack.pledge()
• Stackoverflow
• Khanacademy

4.     Do you love digital designs? You have seen many well-illustrated graphic designs and you are already dying to know the “How to”? If you want to self-teach yourself then I recommend you Youtube and evanto.com, all for free. May I not deceive you that after your series of learning on those platforms you need to book/buy a course relating to Graphic Design before becoming a fully-fledged graphic designer? Also, won’t it make sense to add a marketable sauce to your skill? Just imagine yourself being tagged “Web/graphic designer”. If you agree then I recommend you DDN’s course. Daniel Damilola Nejo is a UK-based Nigerian, a brand builder, professional web/graphics designer, an award winning CEO (the Presidential Idea), currently 24. Well that is just part of the motivation. Just head on straight to thepuzzlehustle.com to know more about him and his course. His course is just for a “token” of $47. Some missed it when it was $10, it was during the Black Friday season and it’s over. The earlier the better, you should just go for his course, you will love it. 

But still, if you are not interested in web design then Shaw Academy is for you. Just make sure you are having enough bucks with you. There are many other platforms other than Shaw Academy, just do some online research.

5.     If money is what you want to make then do it. Make money with your skills or something salable (decent) that you are good at, manage as many businesses as you can, maybe when the strike is over you could have gained financial freedom and you won’t even ask your parents/guardian for any petty cash. Not only financial freedom, you could become the CEO of yourself, you will gain experiences, making decisions on your own won’t be difficult and you will feel more confidence. Gradually you are turning into a leader, a real CEO and what else? Life won’t seem as difficult as it had once, maybe not.

PS: Making money shouldn’t make you do things forbidden by law, protect your pride. Don’t “hustle”. Although the word “hustle” is being used every day and anyhow by anybody but it is simply a collocation with different meaning, even the scammers/fraudsters do make use of the word the most. So do something that is worth boasting, something you won’t have to doubt “Am I doing the right thing?” Try to be decent, keep it real and do not “slay” the bad way. Make your own money in a smart, acceptable/harmless way or the hard way.

6. If you what you love is traveling, maybe for business reasons then you will probably enjoy the strike period the most. Travel as you want, go from place to places, have fun, shoot as many pictures as you want and gather experiences along. Since you will become more exposed so I am advising you too, blog along the journey. Am I making iteration? Get a website hosted, either free or paid you have your choice. Try as much as possible to turn those imaginative experiences into stories. Doing that is yet another purpose of you traveling. Send me a mail via aoadesola1@gmail.com if you are in need of my assistance in setting up a website or simply send your message filling in the “Contact Us” contact form by clicking here. Bon voyage!

Many words can’t fill a bushel so hurry and get yourself together before it’s too late, there might not be a second bite of the cherry. I pray the strike come to an end as early as it can. And maybe you are having a better idea or you have something to ask, kindly comment below and don’t forget to share. No spamming please.

On this note I will be wrapping things up, know yourself, love what you do, always get motivated and never stop moving. Good day!