POLITICAL & ACADEMIC
INDIFFERENCE
When the strike started in July 2013
all hopes were high that the industrial action will soon been called off or
would not take up to 30 days to be rescinded, but as soon as the newly forecasted
date for the end of the strike was past, another date was quickly ‘prophesied’ making
students and the entire society ‘infested’ with the spirit of divination. The
Academic Staff Union would quickly say ‘We are not striking for our pocket’ as
if they have all turned selfless and philanthropist overnight, ‘it is for the
good of the student’ they would again add, as if the students which they all try
to fail have now become ‘Joseph the beloved’. What hypocrisy. Because of this
open deceit many gave ‘moral support’ to the strike to go on. Hence at the
onset the strike enjoyed a little above average support from students, at least
those who were not ready for their exams and also a large part of the society
at least those who had grieve for the federal government. How else can subtlety
and falsehood been shown by our seemingly selfless lecturers. Not until we
heard of a whooping sum of 92 billion naira unpaid allowances we would still
been living in the fool’s paradise that we are loved by our lecturers. How selfless
indeed. I didn’t say they should not ask for increment of salary, no, ask for a
billion as annual pay, who cares! But don’t allow your trouble to be ours! Why
are you then called a professor if you can’t make your request and get it in
simple dialogue, is it that they are no professor in psychology among the
Academic staffs who can just ‘mind twist’ the Federal Government into
implementing their demands? As brut as the students seem, they know how to
siphon exorbitant amount from their parents; yet we are called ‘undergraduate’,
what irony!
It was not long after that the
federal government cried out that the academic staffs were asking for the
national budget and reiterated that their demands were not possible to fulfill.
Did they sign the agreement in duress? Well let’s leave that till later. Then
the strike took a different turn. A large percentage of the students dropped
their books and started searching for jobs. All roads to negotiation were
blocked by pride. The question I asked was, how would the ‘Academic Staff Union
of Universities’ ask demands that could amount to the national budget of so
great a country as Nigeria, if not for arrant display of arrogance and pride.
They hung this illogical action on ‘our deteriorating academic sector’ when
compared to other schools, what else should they expect when they don’t come to
class to lecture, sale of handout and material at exorbitant rate are the other
of the day, and the only way you hear from the so called lecturers is only
through your class representative; reciting the normal quote “he is not around”,
or “he gave us this handout to buy” or the last stanza which says “he gave us
this assignment”. Thereby making quarter baked graduates flood the country. You
will be one of the lucky students on earth if your lecturers come to class to
lecture.
I also heard some whims about infrastructural
decay, what!!! Is the federal government the cause of the dilapidation or
actually lack of maintenance! Or did the president and his cabinets ever come
to class to use any of their lecture halls? Should the federal government help
to maintain what you use? These people jeopardize the freedom of democracy and
unionism! All the things they were asking for was just for the ‘more comfort in
dishing out their lectures’ and yet they make the students felt they were the reason
for the strike. How many lecturers lecture under the trees but many a student
read under the tree, how many a lecturers office are congested up to 3 in an
office but any student who could stay 5 in a room, is born with a standard
golden spoon, how many lecturers are on salaries of below 80,000 per month but
students are never more than 20,000 monthly, they scrabble for food, yet we
must also find money to buy the so-called lecturers handout. We all see that
this strike is just for the more comfort they can find! How many students is on
scholarship today, the ratio should be 1 to 500 that is if I am not over
approximating. Striking for students my foot! How are these problems faced by
the Nigerian student going to be addressed? There was nothing like mandating
all private companies, banks and other NGOs to give scholarship to at least 5
students. But it was all still the big amounts. All these are circles of
corruption; our eyes will all be open when this money will be spent by these so
called elite. I don’t see how the students benefited from it, it is still the
student that would be rushed and forced to read up topics that were never
taught in order to write exams set before the strike began. It is still the
students who would struggle to pay its hostel fees, because the landlords off
campus and ASUU have no connections, our sleeping time shortened in order to
cover up, even our holidays would almost atrophy because they want to meet up
with the private universities, which they know is like building castle in the
air. The students are always in the receiving end as the proverb ‘when two
elephants fight the grass suffers’, but how long are we going to be grasses to
be trampled on? When are we going to be ‘trees’, ‘which would not sway to the
direction of every wind that blows!’ yet we have the so called STUDENT UNION
GOVERNMENT whose sole responsibility and purpose of formation ‘was’ the welfare
of the Nigerian students, but as soon as they are sworn in they are neck deep
in embezzlement and scandals that they forget to fulfill even administrative
responsibilities not to talk of ‘student’s welfare’.
The National Association
of Nigeria Students NANS is ‘after use’ (okrika) of the federal government and
the Academic Staffs! Students need to know that NANS is just there for our
levies and dues. Nonsense!
The federal government is not spared
in the saga and gross misconduct, the strike would have been nipped in the bud,
as the executives of ASUU had said that they wrote 9 letters of reminder but
all were snoozed. They knew what could have been done for lecturers to continue
their work but didn’t. They knew the students who are on the receiving end
could not bite. What is the work of the ministry of education, if they cannot oversee
the affairs of our universities, they are supposed to take the demands of the
Academic staffs to the federal government, and keep reminding the federal
government of their agreement, but the advent of the strike shows that neither
these were done nor done properly. They have proved themselves not useful in
the academic sector hence they should be merged with the ministry of rural and
urban development. Various committees were set up headed by various personnel to
end up the strike but all to no avail. Until the president decided to meet them
personally, just what he could have done immediately the strike commenced. One
may want to ask, what those advisers and Personal Assistant are for, or what
were they thinking for good 4months! Are their positions ceremonial? It is
shameful that in a country where 48 billion dollar later drowned to 12 billion
dollar could be missing without batting an eye that its academic sector remains
in rot.
It is annoying that the Nigerian students
are not protected at all. Hence Nigerian youths are flooding the streets and
schools of Ghana making Nigeria loose the little respect Ghana had for it! I would advice the Student Union Government
of various Universities to be linked with various Human rights organization
where the cause and purpose of students can be properly taken care of.
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