Ikhide takes a hide…
The Academic Staff Union of Universities of Nigeria. ASUU. ASUU is on strike again. Who cares? They are thugs, they are always on strike, nobody seems to know why, except that it involves being paid a boatload of money by their counterparts, those thieves euphemistically called the Nigerian government. ASUU. My contempt for that body of narcissistic thugs knows no bounds. There is really not much one needs to say about how these rogues in academic robes have colluded with any government in power (AGIP) to defraud and rob generations of beautiful children what is their right – a good education. To say ASUU is on strike is to state the obvious, they are nearly always on strike, even when they are at work, they are on strike. Their members want to have sex with every child that walks into their pretend classrooms, when they have satisfied themselves, they pimp their…
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Reflections 
The lingering strike is as a result of the unwillingness of government which incessantly and insincerely bemoan the quality of education without the will to solve the problem that leads to the absymal state of our education. A government which signed a four year old agreement but had not refused to start its implementation and has the temerity to incessantly sponsor useless jambores, publicise falsehood about achivements in power sector, roads that are still deeply in dilpidated state across the country, sponsor post party crisis-ridden mini-convention with public money to neglect of funding public education, deceitfully engage praise-singers, doubtful students for solidarity visits and unsubstantiated statements against the last hope of the masses, ASSU who are begging that public universities be properly funded so that the children of the poor who currently have no shoes may one have shoes for their legs, as some of us including this writer who went to schools in the sixties without shoes, but who because public education was adequatelyfunded then is now by God’s grace a lecturer. How much comes from the various taxes being paid today? What of the various other charges like buying forms at exhorbitant rates to apply for non-existing government jobs? Do we need to ask how much oil theft costs the country daily? What about the frequent visits by large number of government officials to overseas countries? Could not these monies being used to frequently hosts party members, talkshops, make investment solicitation journeys and the attendant estacodes, etc, be saved to save public education with the provision of adequate laboratories and other infrastructures that are absymally insufficient? How can a government who ought to have spent about 1
N1.2 trn from 2009 to date on providing infrastructures, by the token of the agreement it signs now come to say such will ground the economy when the money that have been spent on politicking is possibly much more during the same period, if it were doing what it is supposed to do, as at when due and the situation could have been different now. The religious and ‘opinion’ leaders being hired to praise sing the government and chastise ASUU for daring to say our public universities should be rescued from total collapse are themselves immoral, having sent heir own children to choice universities at home and abroad, some of who were on the staff on universities when theywere being made heads of the components of their groups and who were not sincere enough to hand over their students to others to supervise. what is more immoral than this?
Because we are generally lazy as people who do not want to intellectually interrogate the information we are fed with by the government, we fail to verify the authencity of such information and dance to toe the line of government possibly for pecuniary reasons and without any indepth research, yet we can conclude that those of us on strike are currently engaged by private universities, when at least half of the striking university teachers perform other duties because of their various appointments and researches they are engaged in. So what could more immoral than falsely accusing persons of offence they did not commit? Can the private universities which do not run so many of the courses as obtain in public universites absolve all of us? Do they even have the capacities to absolve all of us? I think moral leaders we must verify facts before speaking on them or making allegations.
The fact remains that public universities and indeed public education are poorly funded and as such they lacked the prerequisite infrastrctures, equipment and conducive learning environments compare with Ghana and other African countries where most of the Nigerian elite class send their children at the expense of our public universities. Until public universities are properly funded and equipped, there cannot be talk of quality education, ‘toeknism’ represented by N10b which already belongs to the Nigerian tertiary institutions will not save our education. How can government take money from TETFUND to fund universities, when they are part owners of the money with the colleges of education and the polytechnics. N87b and not N92b being talked about is expected to be used to pay earned allowances from 2009 to December, 2012 and it is meant not only for the academics but for entire staffs of Federal universities who had already earned them and it is meant for 61 universities, so how can N30b solve such problem and for that long period of time, what again is the big deal? People should urge government to fulfil the agreement it freely and voluntarily signed except we want to remain hypocrites and let our education die. There is no big deal going to classes, but public education will be the worse for it as it will remain perpetually underfunded. However, posterity will not forgive us if we fail to conclusively ensure that our public education is appropriately funded. Those demonising us, whether they be religious leaders or otherwise should sit and do a rethink, do thorough and unbiased research and see whether they will still truly canvass their current position on the strike. If N1.2trn were to have been spent from 2009 to date and the government took N100b from TETFUND for the purpose, judge by yourselves whether it is ideal to rob Peter to pay Peter, not even to pay Paul? It should now be clear that the much touted N100b is just less than 10% of what should have been done to upgrade public universities from 2009 to date. Is this fair for the future of public universities, the hope of the poor masses like our children and our Nigeria? The strike is a sacrifice to save Nigerian public education from total collapse. Some are suggesting the proscription of ASUU, forgeting that the military did not succeed in doing so, much more so that our constituion guarantees us the right to associate freely. Will the government proscribe other nationwide professional or staff associations. Let them go to Ghana, where they delight to send their children for university education, it was the academics there that fought to make their university educaion what it is today.
Thank you.
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