The industrial action declared by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on February 14, 2022 began like a feeble spark gradually turns to a flickering flame. Sadly, with the Federal Government’s cavalier attitude towards containing the flame, the simmering blaze has now become a huge conflagration; burning different interests and destroying not a few life’s ambitions, with no end in sight as at the time of writing this piece. Indeed, the strike has become a national embarrassment with beleaguered parents and their distraught children scratching their heads in puzzlement!
However, it must be stated that it is not only ASUU members that are aggrieved, other campus-based unions, including Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Union of Allied and Education Institution (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) have also gone on strike on similar grounds of poor funding of the university system, poor working conditions, as well as their alleged poor welfare.
Labour and Productivity Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige soon lost the confidence of ASUU leadership in the half-hearted attempt to resolve the crisis, just as his junior in the Ministry, Mr. Festus Keyamo who came on stage with his own grandiloquent sophistry compounded the matter as ASUU leadership accused him of dishing out half-truths and outright falsehood, thus, lacking competence to handle the case.
While parents, students and other interest groups were praying for a quick resolution of the crisis, so that the students could return to classes, Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu who had hitherto remained reticent over the nagging issue was said to have promised President Buhari to resolve the crisis within two or three weeks. But after the expiration of the deadline, it is still all cloud without rain.
Before the commencement of this strike, however, ASUU and other campus-based unions had been driven hither and thither in the course of demanding their legitimate rights from government. An example will suffice here. President Buhari’s government paid arrears of national minimum wage to all categories of federal workers in 2019, whereas those working in the universities did not get their own until April this year; three years after some other workers in other ministries and agencies had been paid. Clearly, this government’s attitude to education is not only perfunctory but noncommittal. And this is the kernel of the incessant strike. Government’s attitude in handling the strike is obviously marked by a great deal of motion, but far less movement.
Some observers have argued that the reason for this lackadaisical attitude of the political leaders is because their children are not in Nigerian university system. A national newspaper even went a step further to publish photographs of the political leaders and their graduating children from foreign universities.
Interestingly, it is said that all problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them, but confront the problems. Ludicrously, Buhari regime has decided to dodge this problem by weaponizing hunger against the lecturers and non-teaching staff who are protesting the poor conditions of the ivory towers. Government has stopped their salaries in the last six months in a misguided belief that the striking workers will back down when they have no money to eat. However, it must be pointed out that this satanic strategy is a sad addition to the basket of burdens on the knowledge workers for the striking staff have vowed to remain with hunger rather than going back to work without any concession from the government!
The big question is who will resolve this conundrum? Campus-based unions may appear to be making a deluge of requests, but what is government willing to offer? This is where dialogue is useful. Government must come out and state what it can afford, rather than creating a climate of uncertainty. Now, there is a deadlock. Political elites seem to be preoccupied with 2023 elections at the expense of the students whose times are being wasted! Does government know that this lingering strike amounts to a deliberate demarketing of an already battered Nigerian educational system? This situation demands decisiveness and urgency. What stops President Buhari from inviting ASUU leadership and leaders of other unions to a meeting, state what government can offer and plead for their understanding?
Stakeholders including traditional rulers, opinion leaders, religious leaders among others should prevail on President Buhari to find a creative way to resolve this strike as soon as possible. These students have stayed at home much longer than necessary. These students are losing interest in education. Some of these idle students are becoming devil’s workshops. While some of the male students have become internet fraudsters, their female counterparts have become professional prostitutes, parading and patronizing club houses every night!
A one- time Emperor of Ethiopia, Chaile Selassie once asserted that, throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
Dante Alighieri postulated that the “darkest places in hell should be reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis” This is indeed a time of moral crisis when stakeholders should stand to be counted. A time President Buhari is feeling unconcerned about the plight of our children is a time of moral crisis! A time Boko Haram activists are celebrating that they have succeeded in banning and proscribing scholarship in Nigeria is a time of moral crisis when those who have been sleeping are not expected to go back to sound snoring. A time millions of university students are rotting at home!
The Governors’ Forum should also wade into this matter. Good enough, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state who is the Chairman should be more enthusiastic about this case as a professed to Awoist.
Also, traditional rulers have a role to play here. It is said among the Yoruba that “elders should not be present in a market place and allow matters to go awry”. What about religious leaders? Yes, some of you may have directed your congregants to pray. After prayers, there should be actions. Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN), Islamic scholars and leaders, get involved. You can appeal to them to do the needful.
The National Peace Commission headed by General Abdulsalam Abubakar and Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah should equally be concerned with education of our children. By the time electioneering starts next month, nobody will be talking about ASUU strike. One also expects the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to mount relentless pressure if its leadership has not parodied executive luxury of President Buhari while their co students are wasting away at home. Above all, the cost implication of students staying at home is huge. Some of them would have graduated were it not for this strike! Their ages are irreversible. Their lives are at stake. Their counterparts all over the world are fast moving on in this highly competitive global market.
President Buhari, no father abandons his children to die in the wilderness of hopelessness and helplessness. I know you are itching to leave, but don’t leave this matter for the incoming administration to handle! Some people allege that you don’t care, but I tell them that you are a caring leader. Prove your critics wrong and justify my endorsement for you. You can do it. Crisis management is a great hallmark of a statesman. We need action from your office, and we need it today.
THEGUARDIAN
