TO THOSE CONDEMNING ASUU.
Having to revisit the ongoing ASUU strike, the remote and immediate causes will amount to flogging a dead horse. That ASUU went on strike is normal, that government negotiated with them is normal, that they rejected government's offer is normal, that they pulled out of negotiations with the government is normal. However, what is abnormal is some people's short-sighted, shallow-minded criticism of the union.
To start with, ASUU is a pressure group and like any other pressure group; the welfare of its members is of utmost importance, it is the primary goal, any other thing is secondary. It is therefore insulting to commonsense for some people to start giving ASUU the stick for fighting for the improvement of the welfare of its members. It is funny and equally absurd for some people to start labelling ASUU as being selfish but who is not? Like the Realists would say, the human being is by nature selfish and is at all times given to pursue its selfish or personal interests. ASUU fighting the FG for the welfare of its members is merely pursuing its selfish interests which is a very normal thing to do. The bottom line of this which many have failed to understand is that this is politics at play. What is even not politics in our contemporary society since man is a political animal? You fight with whatever you have till you achieve your goal(s). Welfare such as better pay, better working conditions, bonuses etc are the primary goals of ASUU, better accommodation, conducive learning environment, affordable tuition fees are not ASUU's concerns, whether they decide to fight for these things or not is at their own discretion. Whenever medical doctors go on strike for better pay, nobody accuses them of being selfish although the patients can go to hell, whenever NUPENG goes on strike, how many of you call them selfish despite the hardship in transportation brought about by fuel scarcity. It is when ASUU goes on strike that you call them selfish people. Have you ever thought of the theory of self-help in politics? Even people believe that heaven helps those who help themselves. We should rather say Nigerian students are selfish and insensible for wanting ASUU to fight for us and us alone. If the FG has acceded to most of their demands except their pay who cares if they refuse to budge? Do you mean they should sheath their swords when they have won the battle for others with their own demands yet to be met? Yoruba people in their wisdom opined that aki so ori olori ki awodi gbe teni lo. ASUU is a pressure group which as its primary responsibility must always protect the interest of its members, they are workers, they have the right to demand for better pay and working conditions, they have the right to down their tools.
They have done everything that needs to be done in political negotiations, diplomacy, propaganda and outright confrontation. Whether they achieve their aims remains to be seen. Has there ever been a time when NANS has confronted the government for better working conditions and better wages for their lecturers? Who is now selfish? You always expect others to fight your battle for you while you have refused to take your destiny into your own hands. ASUU as a pressure group has lived up to its responsibility; its members while our own pressure group NANS has sold our rights as students in exchange for the crumbs dropping from the table of politicians. No wonder some people call NANS the youth wing of PDP or how do you explain a situation where the NANS president goes on tv and start blabbing through that gutter outlet on his face he calls a mouth that he just had a meeting with the president and everything will soon be resolved that he had decided to go the way of diplomacy as against the archaic way of public disturbance, it's over a month he said that and we are still at home.
Those who we even call the leaders in our universities have either been Mokolaized with dollars by the government or bought over by the university authorities. So why crying and battering ASUU like little babies. We should stop being spoon-fed, we should take our destiny into our own hands. We should hold the government to ransom, make our demands and not wait for ASUU to do that for us.
Many of us talk because we don't have parents among them, if ur parent is a lecturer, will you be against him for wanting a better pay when you know the reality on ground at home? Many of you whose parents are not in the teaching profession will never call them selfish whenever they go on strike to demand better pay. Let us appreciate ASUU for even deeming it fit to add our interests to their demands when our own pressure group has failed to do anything tangible for us. The only thing they do is to gallivant around with politicains, smiling at events while feeding on the crumbs falling from the tables of politicians. They have become campaign managers and foot soldiers for politicians overnight. They shout party slogans as if their lives depended on it. IBB in an interview said Nigerian youths are not experienced enough to govern, many lambasted the septuagenarian for his claim but I totally agree with him. Has NANS ever taken up the government for the improvement of education at the primary and secondary level despite the rot there? Although it claims to be representing the interests of the Nigerian students. Yet some of you will continue criticizing ASUU for not fighting your fight as if you are toddlers being bosom-fed. Has NANS ever protested against the unlawful and extra-judicial killings of students across the country, students being unjustly expelled and victimised? Better learning environment? Good accommodation in the hostels? Never! ASUU is there to fight on our behalf. Let us admit that NANS has failed but what have Nigerian students done about the rot in the educational sector, under funding and unemployment? Nothing!! ASUU is coming to do it. The state of the Nigerian youth is a tragi-comedy. Nigerian youths are uninformed, incoherent, myopic and ignorant yet we students that are supposed to be the conscious layer have failed to. We always like the larger Nigerian society blame others for our failures and misfortune.
At a time when youths around the world are busy reshaping the course of their countries, we are just sitting down, consoling ourselves with odoriferous akpos jokes while laying our woes at the doorsteps of others. Youths in Brazil used the opportunity of the Confederations Cup to demand for better welfare from their government and the result is that the government caved in to their demands after much protests and pumped billions of dollars into the health, transport and education sectors. Youths especially students re-wrote the history of China and China has risen from a third world country to become the 2nd biggest economy in the world and seriously breathing down the neck of the US wanting to overtake. Youths have changed the political landscape of India, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil etc and they are fast becoming emerging world economies. Egypt, Tunisia are also going through the same phase, whether they will be successful remains to be seen. The power of the social media as a revolutionary tool is yet to be discovered in Nigeria, the only thing we do is to post silly Akpos jokes on social media sites. How many of us take time to read the news to know what is going on around us daily? An uninformed mind is a deformed mind that is why we take uninformed decisions on issues. Akwa-ibom Local Government chairman was recently arrested at the BWI International Airport by the Maryland Police Department for smuggling $82,000 dollars into the US, when questioned, he said he wanted to donate the money at the just concluded annual International Convention of the Akwa-Ibom Indigenes in the US and Canada. If such an amount is for donation, how much do you think a he would worth. Nobody is talking about this, yet it is ASUU that is selfish.
Also a mother who couldn't afford a pair of shoes for his son recently donated two blocks of hostel rooms to the Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa without any traceable source of income, yet nobody is talking whereas, that is enough for the President to resign in saner climes. Students are not complaining about the bumper salary packages being received by our legislators. Respected international print media The Economist in the UK and the IMF recently released the report of a study in which it concluded that Nigerian legislators are the highest paid in the world getting 52% more than what the second highest paid legislators the Kenyans receive. If a local government chairman could be caught with $82,000 dollars, is that not a cause for concern? How many of our lecturers have laid their hands on such an amount before? 70% of our nation's budget is allocated to recurrent expenditure the bulk of which is used to pay the fat salary of our politicians yet Nigerian students are not talking.
While the British PM receives 2.7% of the country's GDP, a Nigerian lawmaker receives 116 times the country's GDP per person of $1600. A Nigerian legislooter according to the report earn $189,000 annually, that's some 30.6m naira apart from other hidden allowances like, wardrobe, fuel, car loan, car maintenance, travelling, bribe to pass budget, constituency projects, committee membership and only God know's what else. How many of our lecturers can boast of such? A government that debates over 18k as minimum wage can afford to pay such an amount as salary to some pot-bellied politicians whose only job is to doze off during sittings and when they are not dozing off, the only thing they do is to pass laws on child marriage. We always wait for people to do everything for us. Will ASUU compel the FG to invest in education? Why cant we add NASU and SSANU or maybe NURTW to the equation and beg them to fight on our behalf? Less than 1000 people enjoy the bulk of what is meant for 160million people, is that ASUU's fault too? We are yet to see the ongoing strike by ASUU as an opportunity for us to hold the government to ransom and make our demands too. We always wait for ASUU to do it. Politicians in countries with bigger and more viable economies don't enjoy as much as ours. If 9billion naira could be spent anually to service our presidential fleet of 10 aircrafts with two more to be added soon and Nigerian students are waiting for ASUU to lead them to face the government, na jonzine we dey. Imagine what your local government chairman is worth in assets. They can continue to loot this nation with impunity when they know fully well that we lack deep-thinking and we are ignorant. They use divide and rule tactics to cause divisions among us, they have bought many of us over with stipends. Look around you, those shouting against the government yesterday, where are they? They are all now rushing for the crumbs falling from the tables of those who have held the destiny of this nation to ransom.
Education has been perennially underfunded, unemployment is becoming more widespread, corruption continues unabated, insecurity grows at an alarming rate, Boko Haram is wrecking havoc in the north, the south-east is plagued by kidnapping, the south-south is confronted by vandalism, oil theft and militancy while the south-west is grappling with a high rate of armed robbery. We the youths of this country could only watch as conditions deteriorate waiting for the proverbial messiah. Is it going to be ASUU, NANS, NLC, NJC, NBA, NYM or even NURTW? Some have even pitched tent with either the ruling PDP that has ever been a curse to this country while others are jumping ship to liaise with the Association
of Political Charlatans APC a worse version of PDP thinking salvation resides with them.
If the Nigerian youths have so far failed to shake up this country and push it to greatness due to the fact that majority are either illiterate or semi-illiterate, what of the conscious layer of the Nigerian youths, the students? Yet I dare say we have also failed this generation with our siddon look approach. We should take a cue from youths around the world who didn't just sit down, look and watch their nation become a failed one. Our leaders seem to be getting away with everything and do anything they want just because they know that we don't know, we failed to realize that we don't know and finally, we are not willing to know. They surely know how to handle us, whenever they sense that their game is up and their is agitation on the horizon, they either play the ethnic or religious card and with that they appeal to our emotions because they know that we are emotional and think less whenever it comes to the issue of ethnicity and religion.
It is time to outgrow the cocoon of ethnicity and religion, be united against those militating against the growth and development of this country and forge away forward for this country. Our parents failed to fight and now we are suffering, let us fight so that our children won't suffer. Your home is your home, it's not everybody that will be opportuned to travel out of this country and even if you do, no matter the number of years spent, you can never be accepted as being part of them in another man's land. Let us make Nigeria a place we can be proud to call home. Nigerian youths, no messiah is coming, we are our own messiah, let us shake up this country and ring in the changes. The things our fathers complained about, we are currently complaining about them, let us wake up so that our children won't complain about them.
To bring about any change, we first of all need to be enlightened, strive for knowledge and willingness to know, without these, we will just be drifting about like a rudderless ship on the high seas.
NIGERIAN YOUTHS, STAND UP, UNITE, FIGHT AND WE CAN MAKE THIS COUNTRY GREAT.

Too lengthy ,btw its an egoist that believe in self appraisal of any kind not a realist ,may Allah bless you as you correct that