PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA: THE PRESIDENT AND HIS LEGACIES THUS FAR

The office of the President of any country is a very rare but massive opportunity to define and shape the life of a country and its citizens. It is a lifetime opportunity that every past President would be glad to reminisce the strides and legacies he has left, and be proud of same.

President Muhammadu Buhari remains one of the most accepted and celebrated President in the history of Nigeria. People died celebrating his victory in 2015! Considering his ascendancy to the position, and the all-out campaign and voting by the masses and youths of Nigeria, one is left in utter awe at how these youths are at the receiving end of the policies of his government.

The significant encouragement to vote for the Mr. President and the APC was borne, not just out of love for the person of the President, but on his stands, and that of the likes of the Minister of Education and his Information counterpart. The Governor of Kaduna State, Mal. Nasir El-rufai, presented one of the all-time outstanding analyses of problems with the public universities in Nigeria. The President capped these with staunch criticism of monies expended on “2014 CONFAB” at a time the public universities were on lockdown, while Lecturers and students were at home. This, in no small measures, endeared him to millions of parents, students, and students-to-be. He was the only “Messiah” they saw, hoped for, and stood with, against all odds. With his team, the hope of the public universities and by extension, the university education of children of the talakawas was believed to have been sorted.

One year left of his tenure, what legacies is his government leaving behind? The fantastic aspect is that the President did not leave out any of these advocates for a “better public university”. Well, the legacies to be left behind, as of today are as follows; that

1. his government is borrowing N4.1 Trillion to subsidize PMS at a time they could not spend N200 Billion a year, on public universities that accommodate the majority of the youths that stood for him and his party, when it mattered most

2. the President and his team reportedly plan to spend over N1.5 Trillion ($3 Billion at the exchange rate of 1$/N500) on the energy sector in 2021 alone. This will sum up to over N3 Trillion in the last 4 years on an already Privatized Power Sector!

3. PMB led a government that is expending over N1.13 Trillion (N1.91 Billion) on a rail project from Kano to Maradi in Niger at about the same time that same amount could help keep public universities healthier and running for 5 years (N200B each year).

4. the Public Universities were for the first time ever, closed for 12months in 2 years under his watch and that of his carefree ministers, who now want our votes to become president. No wahala

5. the President’s well-intended school feeding program gulps twice, the budget of the entire education sector.

6. his government superintended over tremendous hardship meted on public university academics and their dependents through the Holy month of Ramadan and Lent, simply for demanding an improvement in the well-being of public universities and their workers.

Every decision, deception, and falsehood by various government representatives that have kept our students at home, leading a good number of them into crimes, frustration, and suicide (as reported) will count against the government you led. This is because, as the president, you remain the father of the nation. We voted for you and the buck stops on your table.

It is true that you have directed some of your appointees to address these issues. The issues have remained unresolved, and you have not punished anyone for disobeying the directive of the President of Nigeria, which indeed is a crime.

To the academic community, history will have it recorded that;

- you starved your wives, children, and dependents in the struggle to better the public universities

- you have lost colleagues, friends, family, and dependents whose medical bills could not be paid, owing to FGN withholding your salaries

- you endured tremendous insults, blackmail, and dissensions in the process of the struggle to stabilize the public universities.

To everything that has a beginning, is an end – Good or Bad. This would not be different.

Both ASUU AND NANS has failed!

This is the future of our children we are talking about because we are all afraid of the guns in kaki we have resigned our fate for the Islamic government who in the first place does not believe in education to rape us to death.

Their children don't go to public schools hence will never be affected by their wickedness, so they keep eating their cakes and having it.

Felimax:
Both ASUU AND NANS has failed!

This is the future of our children we are talking about because we are all afraid of the guns in kaki we have resigned our fate for the Islamic government who in the first place does not believe in education to rape us to death.

Their children don't go to public schools hence will never be affected by their wickedness, so they keep eating their cakes and having it.

I don't think it's about "Islamic government" per se. We've had governments led by christians. Does that make it "Christianity government "?

Our problem is with the political class, the elites - north, South, East and West. They've lost regards for the citizens.