₦airaland Forum

I find it quite exasperating that successive administrations in Nigeria tend to play politics with education. Is there nothing in this country that is beyond the vitiating influence of our morally wretched political class, nothing that is sacrosanct to them? Today, the Federal Government pretends that it does not know why university lecturers are on strike. In fact, according to the Honourable Ministers of Education and Labour, the lecturers are not on strike! They are presumably taking a vacation to enjoy the largesse that government has given them. I mean, is that not madness? In a sane country, would such ministers not have resigned on account of that rhetorical gaffe? And yet these are the same public office holders who have failed to address the demands of polytechnic lecturers who have been on their own strike since April! In the next few days one can expect our (dis)honourable ministers to start their usual campaign of blackmail: 'Lecturers are greedy'; 'They should consider the plight of their students'; 'They should stop overheating the polity'. When they begin to utter those platitudes, Nigerians should ask them if indeed the FG signed an agreement with the lecturers' union in 2009 and an MOU on the same agreement in 2011, and if those covenants have been fully implemented. We should also ask if the lecturers are making any new demands other than asking for their legitimate allowances for teaching and examining overbloated classes, while also asking government to properly equip laboratories, libraries, etc. In any case, there are no prizes for guessing who between a Nigerian politician and a Nigerian lecturer is the greedier. Besides, it is common knowledge that our high-ranking politicians do not educate their children in Nigerian universities; our universities are for the children of the God-forsaken poor. And as for the question of 'overheating the polity', one can ask if there has ever been a time when those in power did not overheat our polity. Why, Nigeria has been boiling for ages. All that remains is for it to explode!

I find this whole Amaechi brouhaha slightly nauseating. Why should the Nigerian press be so fixated on Amaechi to the exclusion of other issues that are worthier of public interest? Who or what is Amaechi that he (or it) should be the subject of public discussion in a country whose educational system has collapsed? Is the fate of one contumacious politician more important than the plight of the countless millions of Nigerian women who die at childbirth? Or can we equate the foibles of our political class with the urgent need to save a sinking, sunken nation? Why do we prefer to fiddle while Rome burns? We may just wake one day to find that the chance to save Nigeria had slipped away while we allowed ourselves to become enthralled by the beguiling soap opera of an irresponsible and ultimately irrelevant political class. For God's sake, Amaechi, or whatever he calls himself, is a speck of dust in the Nigerian firmament. Nigeria's destiny - the destiny of its people - supercedes the punctilios of any single politician, no matter how important. And that, with due respect,includes Goodluck Jonathan himself.

I find this whole Amaechi brouhaha slightly nauseating. Why should the Nigerian press be so fixated on Amaechi to the exclusion of other issues that are worthier of public interest? Who or what is Amaechi that he (or it) should be the subject of public discussion in a country whose educational system has collapsed? Is the fate of one contumacious politician more important than the plight of the countless millions of Nigerian women who die at childbirth? Or can we equate the foibles of our political class with the urgent need to save a sinking, sunken nation? Why do we prefer to fiddle while Rome burns? We may just wake one day to find that the chance to save Nigeria had slipped away while we allowed ourselves to become enthralled by the beguiling soap opera of an irresponsible and ultimately irrelevant political class. For God's sake, Amaechi, or whatever he calls himself, is a speck of dust in the Nigerian firmament. Nigeria's destiny - the desiny of its people - supercedes the punctilios of any single politician, no matter how important. And that, with due respect,includes Goodluck Jonathan himself.

First, one should understand that no woman craves an abusive relationship, nor do women enjoy being beaten, being humiliated or being ill-treated in any manner. That they sometimes endure such abuses is merely another of those tragedies that they simply find themselves unable to redress. However, any "man" who deliberately abuses his wife (girlfriend or fiancee) deserves to have his head examined! As a man I say that without apogies. The days of sadomasochism are long gone. You can't prove your manliness by beating up your wife. Instead, go and challenge Floyd Mayweather or one of the Klitschko brothers in a boxing ring. First, one should understand that no woman craves an abusive relationship, nor do women enjoy being beaten, being humiliated or being ill-treated in any manner. That they sometimes endure such abuses is merely another of those tragedies that they simply find themselves unable to redress. However, any "man" who deliberately abuses his wife (girlfriend or fiancee) deserves to have his head examined! As a man I say that without apogies. The days of sadomasochism are long gone. You can't prove your manliness by beating up your wife. Instead, go and challenge Floyd Mayweather or one of the Klitschko brothers in a boxing ring. First, one should understand that no woman craves an abusive relationship, nor do women enjoy being beaten, being humiliated or being ill-treated in any manner. That they sometimes endure such abuses is merely another of those tragedies that they simply find themselves unable to redress. However, any "man" who deliberately abuses his wife (girlfriend or fiancee) deserves to have his head examined! As a man I say that without apologies. The days of sadomasochism are long gone. You can't prove your manliness by beating up your wife. Instead, go and challenge Floyd Mayweather or one of the Klitschko brothers in a boxing ring.

It amazes me that people still have time for such frivolities as the BBA show. Perhaps it is merely a testimony to our hedonistic tendencies. In any case, I consider it highly harmful to public morality, especially to the sensibilities of the young and impressionable segments of our society. I doubt that such programmes serve any useful purpose, other than perhaps to gratify the voyeuristic yearnings of society's amoral and intellectually vacuous class of debauchees. The sooner such shows are banned the better!