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The Last ASUU Strike By John Igoli The last ASUU strike will be the very last for a long time to come. Let us be prepared for a reign of peace on our university campuses. This is because the ASUU strikes are becoming a burden too heavy for frail lecturers to carry unless the super ones; the VCs, Professors with portfolios or political appointments do it. A former VC had this analogy: if you are a barber and a man requests for a five naira haircut, don't argue with him that a befitting style will cost him N20.00, just give him a hair cut worth five naira so you can have money to feed with your family. Else you'll go hungry and finally beg the man to come for the 'befitting hair cut' for that same five naira you rejected earlier! University lecturers through ASUU have made their points. What Nigerians want is to produce graduates whether qualified or not. The only fora parents and our leaders show interest in the universities is during matriculation and convocation. If ASUU says there will be no convocations (and therefore the award of honorary degrees) as a weapon to achieve their goals or ideals, then they would have recruited some VCs and influential persons who can speak in their favour without the trauma of strikes, loss of salaries and sack of lecturers. With the return of the Illorin 49, the last strike should indeed be the last one else the question will be 'is ASUU striking for a balance or balancing for a strike?' When you compare the educational situation in the developed countries with the one in Nigeria, the only difference is that of human inclination, the need to do things right. We can have all that they have without any extraordinary effort or losing any money more than our leaders are embezzling. Yet all you hear is those people started hundreds of years ago. Who is teaching our old people how to drive modern cars?! Let them give space for the young ones to carry out the reforms in the educational and other sectors they refuse. The young ones are too young to seek political appointments, yet if you are of the right species, you are appointed only it is called a generation shift, more of a quake as the older generation is hardly amused by such appointments. Many of our leaders can not lead in peace time. They are only experts in crisis development and management hence they call themselves managers. They can not see the tide sweeping across the globe hence ideals without ideas are being forced on the people. This is one of the major problems with our university and other systems in general. It's like a fish drowning in water. The ball is now in the court of our leaders in the education sector especially the minister and the ministers of state. They should immediately address the ASUU issues and once and for all put an end to strikes in our tertiary Institutions. What the universities require first and foremost is proper management of funds available from the government and internally generated. Flooding the system now with increased funds as a panacea to strikes without proper checks and balances on ground will only lead to more troubles as the monies will drain into opportune private pockets. The earlier we start reasoning on the basis of reality the better. The entire pretext about ideals of education without ideas to make the students learn is getting us no where. It is said the fact that a man died does not mean he lived! Similarly, the fact that a student graduated does not mean he learnt anything except perhaps enough to join a political or pressure group, raise invoices or sign cheques and ultimately have the opportunity to embezzle funds. Our leaders want to deny the younger generation the present day living style they crave without setting standards or goals to be aimed for. They will not even reward hard working and committed ones to show the way for the lazy and wayfaring ones. So what is the difference they say? Some lecturers in some universities have not been paid their withheld salaries while some universities had to borrow from Banks to pay their lecturers before they could resume academic activities. This is not in line with the spirit by which the strike was called off or in tune with the servant-leadership style of the president which we are all enjoying now. The minister should as a matter of urgency tackle these issues. This will earn him the trust of the lecturers and pave way to a lasting peace in our campuses. I trust that the Minister and the Ministers of state for education are eminently qualified to achieve this. Thank you. |