“When you know better you do
better.”
― Maya Angelou


It’s now being Six weeks since
the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU went on an
indefinite strike in protest of the
Nigerian Government’s inability
to fulfil the terms of an
agreement that was reached
between both parties in 2009.

The statement credited to the
President of ASUU, Dr. Isa
Faggae yesterday in which he
announced the withdrawal of
his team from further
negotiations with government
suggests a further digging-in
into the trenches by the union
till the government gives in to
their demand, which they say is
nothing new but rather an
agitation for the implementation
of a subsisting agreement which
the government has reneged
upon and thinking to
renegotiate.

Strikes by the ASUU in Nigeria
aren’t an uncommon
phenomena, infact a student
who’s just gained admission into
any of Nigeria’s public
universities stoically adds
between a year or two more to
her/his expected graduation
date to accommodate the
strikes, assuming (s)he’s
academically sound and won’t
fail and repeat classes.

The fact that the government
employed (to perform the task
of reaching the agreement with
ASUU) a citizen of impeccable
character in the person of Mr.
Gamaliel Onosode to add some
credibility to the agreement (as
they’d done with Justice Uwais
and Malam Nuhu Ribadu, who
were also co-opted to clean
government stables at one time
or the other, only to have their
reports and efforts rubbished
and their reputation dented)
didn’t eventually lead to much in
terms of concretizing the
agreement as it’s
implementation had remained
harduous since it was reached,
and the strike of that year called
off.

Most of those negotiating on the
government side today (as with
many government officials,
politicians and elites), do not
have their kids in any of the
public tertiary institutions now
on strike and hence do not feel
the pains Nigerian parents
whose wards now loiter about
getting up to no good feel.

The stop-start-stop situation in
Nigeria’s universities has
contributed in no small measure
to the dropping of Nigerian
universities in the rankings of
their peers worldwide, as well as
(and more importantly) the
fallen standard of education in
Nigerian universities (and by
extension the education sector).

It is pertinent to note that unlike
other strike actions before this, ASUU
isn’t asking for anything new,
and their demands this time
appear to be all encompassing
(not just about their
remuneration or about just
=N=92 Billion, as the finance
minister Okonjo Iwealla would
have us believe in her bid to
blackmail ASUU and make them
look bad before the masses),
including adequate funding of
universities, research grants and
other sundry matters of which
then remuneration forms a part
(and again all of these have
afore been agreed upon in
2009).

Most disgusting is the fact that
while the impasse lingered, the
Minister of State for Education,
Mr Nyesom Wike was busy
serving as arrowhead to the
destabilization force in Rivers
State with the intention of
making it ungovernable for his
former boss, by whose grace he
got into the position he occupies
today, leaving his immediate
boss Professor Ruqqayat Ahmed
Rufai to face the music alone.
Interestingly, unlike the other
strikes called by ASUU where we
are daily inundated by reports of
influential and non-influential
personae asking ASUU to call off
their strike for the sake of the
students, this time around
ASUU’s being urged on by all
concerned even the suffering
students to persevere and not
shift ground until their demands
are met, to the chagrin of those
on the government side despite
all their efforts at blackmailing
the striking lecturers.

The so called concession in
which the federal government
said they’ve released =N=30
Billion is grossly inadequate, and
lodging the same funds with the
National Universities
Commission for onward
disbursement to the universities
is a slap on the face of ASUU.
It is the rot in the universities
that has made foreign
universities (including
universities in Ghana and more
recently in the Gambia) and
private universities (owned by
most of these politicians and
super rich members of the
clergy) the toast of Nigerians,
that ASUU intends to remedy by
calling this strike.

It is unfortunate that a
government led by a former
lecturer (for what it’s worth) will
turn around to be the same one
under which education fared the
worst. It’s attempt to launder it’s
image by citing the creation of 6
new universities under it’s watch
is a ruse since universities aren’t
made up of just buildings and
infrastructure (which is not even
up to par today when compared
to infrastructure you’d find in
first generation federal
universities).

While this government is
notorious for blowing billions of
Naira away on the flimsiest of
excuses, it hasn’t yet found it
trite to meet the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, UNESCO
recommended budgetary
allocation to Education of 26%, a
figure one would’ve expected a
nation with a literacy burden
and gap to fill to be at par with
the progressive rest of the world,
should even exceed. Sadly, the
current budgetary allocation
stands at 8.67% of total budget,
a far cry from the Standard.
Rather, everything must go into
satisfying the gluttonous
appetite of politicians and hang-
abouts to the detriment of
generations yet unborn.

They may have figured that it’ll
be in their best interest to keep
Nigerians especially students in a
position or situation where
they’ll know no better to ensure
the perpetuation of their kind in
power, which is at variance with
what is obtainable in saner and
more educated climes.

We can’t continue doing things
the same way and expect a
different result. Nigerian
graduates will remain ‘half-
baked’ until the necessary
changes are initiated and
implemented.

Sending children abroad hasn’t
helped Nigeria’s situation, as
though the foreign trained
students get the elite positions
in most or all the work places,
they still have to work with their
Nigerian trained counterparts
who mostly become their
subordinates and are unable to
carry out instructions to the
later, or even become bosses
who for lack of the necessary
exposure limit the potentials
inherent in the foreign trained
ones, bringing the nation back
to square one, her knees.

Also, because foreign trained
students lack the experience the
country provides, their policies in
government like we’ve seen with
most ‘imported’ government
officials, aren’t suited to our
peculiar environment.
The failure of the so called been-
to’s can be seen in the financial
sector where at a point (till now)
they held sway.

Without disregarding the positive
impact students trained abroad
have had on Nigeria,I make bold
to say that Nigeria will still
continue to grow at snail speed
if the lot that’s graduated in her
public tertiary institutions
continue to school under
present conditions.

The government will do well to
heed ASUU’s call and satisfy their
demands. They may however set
benchmarks to monitor
progress to ensure that monies
released are judiciously put into
result oriented academic
activities.

I’ve always found laughable that
Nigerian vision (as envisioned by
her visionless rulers) of
becoming one of the top 20
economies in the world by the
year 2020, the remote possibility
of that alcohol-inspired vision
will become unattainable far
beyond that date if this strike
isn’t resolved in ASUU’s favour.

‘kovich


ASUU AND NIGERIA’S CRIPPLED UNIVERSITIES | madukovich's cogitations - http://madukovich./2013/08/23/ASUU-and-nigerias-crippled-universities/u