Gbade, an indigene of Abeokuta the capital city of Ogun State, joyfully gained admission into a foremost University in Nigeria to study Veterinary medicine in the year 2006, friends and families could hardly grab some peaceful moment as he kept reiterating his joyful story into their ears, friends rolled out drums, family members threw parties, all meant to celebrate his triumphant entry into a University but seven years after Gbade is still struggling to complete his eleventh semester. Many people have queried his duration in school but is it the government’s fault, Gbade’s fault, educational Unions’ (ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT) fault or the fault of his parent that couldn’t afford the tuition fee of a private University?. The lamentable and mourning state of our educational sector needs alacritous attention and the sinking ship of our educational sector needs a rescue.
One will be on the next stairs to truth if he asserts that the fear of ASUU is the beginning of wisdom for a government that is interested in consistent and stable education. The inconsistencies experienced in the educational sector of this country with emphasis on our Universities can be partly blamed on ASUU. The Academic Staff Union of Universities which was formed in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Ife and University of Lagos. The Union was active in struggles against the military regime during the 1980s. In 1988, the Union organized a National Strike to obtain fair wages and University autonomy. As a result, the ASUU was proscribed on August 7, 1988 and all its property seized. It was allowed to resume in 1990, but after another strike was again banned on August 23, 1992. However, an agreement was reached on Septemberc3, 1992 that met several of the Union's demands including the right of workers to collectively bargain. The ASUU organized further strikes in 1994 and 1996, protesting against the dismissal of staff by the General Sani Abacha military regime. In 2007, the ASUU went on strike for three months, In May 2008, the ASUU held two one-week 'warning strikes' to press a range of demands, including an improved salary scheme and reinstatement of 49 lecturers who were dismissed many years ago. In June 2009, the ASUU ordered its members in federal and state Universities nationwide to proceed on an indefinite strike over disagreements with the Federal Government on an agreement it reached with the Union years ago. After three months of strikes, in October 2009 the ASUU and other staff Unions signed a memorandum of understanding with the government (that the salary of lecturers will be increased by 53% and that of senior and junior staff by 25%; escorted by the retirement age of professors which was increased from 65years to 70years (even in the face of increasing rate of unemployment) and the three months helpless and academically idle days of students was apparently for that selfish purpose, indeed a Union that is concerned about the education sector).and called off the industrial action, and so on until their latest declaration on Monday July 1, 2013 and no one knows when this would end. Must ASUU strike be an annual yuletide season which we must all celebrate? Yet they could stage a walkout on our representatives, what an insult on the nation? They only give credence to Students’ strength when they are fighting the common enemy.
The Union has since inception consistently used the subtle tool of employing the country’s future, students, as instruments in driving home both their selfish and selfless demands by holding them hostage and their demands as ransom before resuming to duty post though they get paid even during the industrial action. Historically, the genesis of ASUU’s struggle was based partly on fair wage and years later we still sing the same old song and recite the same old poem. The number of strikes embarked upon by the Nigerian academic is now so often that the government no longer sees it as threat rather they see it as norms. I give credence to the saying that it is only a fool that would do the same thing the same way twice and expect different answers, ASUU has being using the same technique to drive home their point since birth with little or nothing to show for it, after all they are not just knowledgeable, they have betrayed severally the struggle of students in their own respective citadel of learning. The educational sector is torn-apart but is incessant strike the answer? I feel there are more salient issues ASUU should attend to in our Universities, like the resuscitation of Students’ Union in all schools, incessant and frequent killing of Nigerian students, archaic and obsolete learning notes lecturers use, inhumane governance style in some institutions et al. Hammering on ASUU is like curing headache when the spread of acute malaria is continually threatening our studentship.
Our malaria patients are those sitting on the highest tier of government in the country, the Federal government, It is astonishing to see under the recurrent expenditure that the amazingly huge budget of the Presidency and the bulk sum of ₦150 billion allegedly set aside for the National Assembly while all Federal Universities in Nigeria struggle to earn a little above ₦200 billion. In the same vein, the Federal Government has earmarked the sum of ₦33.54 million for newspapers and magazines in 2013 fiscal year. Details of the budget showed that Aso Rock would spend ₦1.51 billion on personnel; ₦7.48 billion on overhead and ₦8.99 billion as recurrent expenditure. In 2013, ₦7.48 million would be spent on local travels, transport and training; ₦1.04 billion on international travels while ₦783.89 million would be spent on foodstuff and refreshment. Also, ₦133.18 million was proposed for purchase and maintenance of generating sets; ₦19.25 million on books; ₦2.88 billion on repair and renovation of buildings; ₦95.89 million on computer software and ₦148.11 million on electricity charges. This is imprudent and against the letter and spirit of fiscal discretion that the President claimed in his budget speech. It is apparent that Nigeria is suffering from misplaced priority, if a nation like Uganda in 2012 can budget 27% of the total annual vote to education and the so-called giant of Africa allocated 8.4% of her total vote to education. Nigeria, a developing nation that is concentrating on building its physical walls and neglecting its strength, its future, and its hope, proposed a N4.92-trillion spending plan, representing an increase of 5% over the N4.7-trillion appropriated for the 2012 fiscal year and yet can not suffer its educational sector’s vote to meet with the UNESCO minimum requirement of 26%. Our educational sector will continually and increasingly suffer retrogression, if our leaders continually siphon our money into the construction and establishment of more mushroom private Universities leaving the already established ones to suffer gloomy abandonment.
“Those who contributed largely to the insanity in the society are not just those who witnessed, but those who chose to keep mum when things incessantly dilapidate”. Indeed, ASUU and the Federal Government are partners in the war against stable and good education in Nigeria; they are the author, the foundation and the establishment upon which our failed educational sector rest its shoulder. When they both agree to move it forward, it would progress. When important issues are not handled urgently they become urgent and degenerate into crisis with collateral consequences for society. A stitch in time saves nine!

Sometimes i ask myself do our govt really knw what d common man on d street is passing through? Almost every student want to go to tertiary institution yet our so called govt are nt helping d matter.