ASUU vs FG: My Dillemma

Opinion article
ASUU vs FG: The dilemma of a Nigerian student

It will be highly reprehensible if at this stage ASUU calls off its strike without having something substantial to lay hand on as fruit of this struggle. They would have needlessly wasted the time of thousands of Nigerian students who had stayed at home because of the strike. On the other hand, it will be sheer wickedness and wanton insensitivity to the plight of the poor if this strike is allowed to continue. I seem to be putting ASUU in a quagmire. But what else can I do?
As a Nigerian student studying in one of the highly reputable universities in the country, I have watched with growing disinterest as things degenerate. I had thought the federal government would have shown a sense of responsibility and maturity to swing into action when this strike was announced two months ago. But I was wrong. Instead, the FG has only made feeble attempts to satisfy the disgruntled academics. As if on cue, NASU and SSANU followed suit. Ever since then, things have continued to take precarious turns. Many of us are being hunted by the fear of tomorrow in our father’s land.
To worsen the whole situation, ASUU has vowed not to return to the negotiation table unless the Federal Government signs the agreement. The Federal Government has also resolved not to meet the sacrosanct demands until the lecturers return to the classroom. So, where do we go from here? If the Federal Government has decided not to be sympathetic to the cause of the youth of this nation, won’t ASUU give it a thought to toe the line of Mahatma Ghandi, who said ‘An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind’
ASUU may have got enough reasons to nail the federal government. The profligacy of the government on negligible things ranks next to absurdity. Ours is a culture that celebrates mediocrity and promotes illiteracy. Today, the round leather holds sway in public circles and takes the centre of attention and fascination. School children drop out of school to become football stars, gain cheap popularity and pile accolades and national honours for being skilful and selfish; although sincere.
The unconscionable spending for the militants in the Niger-Delta is another case in point. The Federal Government is only ready to pacify these self-serving militants who obviously are not interested in the betterment of their community but the gratification of their greedy buccal cavity. Former militants now cruise around in exotic cars courtesy of federal government magnificence.
It is also common knowledge that public ‘servants’ live in splendour while lecturers rot in squalor. Is it not shocking to believe that while an average senator earns 36.8 million Naira per annum, a member of the house of representatives earns 35.9 million Naira and a local government chairman earns 13.9 million Naira per annum (excluding allowances and gratuities), while my professor who has spent the better part of his life studying and devouring volumes of books is paid a paltry 3.9 million Naira per annum! The pay packet decreases as one moves down the academic cadre. Yet, lecturers are trained specialists only that they are meagrely remunerated for their labour.
I can go on and on to show how these builders of the nation’s future are being degraded, abused and misused. However, I will not like to accentuate this disservice at the expense of the object of my article. My main aim is to make our academics realise that it is time for them to prove that the pen is mightier than the sword.
We must however be ready to face the fact. A letter written by the ASUU branch of my school and addressed to students which reads in part “As students of/in Nigerian Universities you experience and bear the brunt of the consequences of the inaction of government on education (but I want to add) and the reaction of ASUU to government’s inaction” shows the union is passing the bulk completely to the government which will not augur well for us.
My piece of advice goes in the noble and immortal words of Martin Luther King Jr: ‘Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.’ To continue with the strike is to turn deaf ears to the pleas and cries of Nigerian students who are at the receiving end. To continue with the strike is to give the opposition a voice in the day of reckoning and stand in jeopardy of suffering shame and sharing in the blame for the calamitous state of our educational system. To continue with the strike is to fight without due consideration of the implication on students who are already dabbling into crimes and anti-social behaviour (an idle hand is the devil’s workshop). ASUU should remember that two wrongs can never make a right. They cannot afford to have a pyrrhic victory. Nigerian students will not celebrate that.
People are no longer appealing to the conscience of our government, seeing their minds are already made up. ASUU is our last resort. They will have to sheath their sword or else many students will be inadvertently slain with that same sword intended for their defence. The academic union must show concern because ‘We are the world, we are the children, we are the future.’

By:Folarin Samson
Editor-in-chief, UnilagSun Newspaper
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