Nothing kills productivity and development like politics and unionism. In Nigeria, politics and union are not defined by clear ideology or altruism but motivated by personal whims and caprices, nothing altruistic. The Academic Staff Union of Universities ( ASUU) has extended its six months old strike indefinitely and the politicians care not because most of them have no personal business with public universities as their wards are walled up in private luxurious universities. With this fight to finish, the students like the proverbial grass will suffer the obstinate thuds of government and ASUU.
Ironically, the children of politicians would spend less than four years in the Universities and come take up the jobs that would be vacated by their fathers and mothers while the children of the masses are left at the mercy of ASUU struggle and government insensitivity. ASUU members will still have their way because they will still get their pay for the period they vacated our campus‘s assignment. ASUU form part of the elite‘s circle, their fight is first for self, and any other thing is secondary.
Rather than stagnating the progress of students, can‘t ASUU be deliberate and face government squarely by refusing to serve as Electoral Officers during elections? By suing government, by shutting down the three arms of government? Why use students as pawns and choking bargaining chips? Part of ASUU‘s demands is the absence of infrastructure, but the little existing ones are now left to decay due to the closure of universities. A typical case of robbing Paul to pay Peter
No one is saying ASUU shouldn‘t be motivated and their conditions of service bettered but certainly not at the expense of poor students who struggled to raise school fees, pay for accommodation, buy foodstuff and are left to their helpless fate. This is a grieving situation that affects the masses and sustained by two egoistic elites‘ contraptions…As it is, let the children of the poor people continue to stay at home while the strike continues. Rich and middle-class children are either in overseas or private schools. Let ASUU continue to use children of the middle-class as a shield to negotiate a better pay. Let ASUU hide behind the cover of laboratories and prevent the children of the poor from graduating from universities while the children of the middle class and rich are taking over the little opportunities out there.
In the long run, ASUU is holding the knife for the annihilation of public universities in Nigeria. Until then, one should applaud the decision of some states to pull out of the national ASUU- ordinarily, it is an outright aberration to have states that share no legal framework in terms of employer and employee pact join forces with a body that operates as employees of the Federal Government. State Universities are owned by state governments and their condition of service drawn from the guidelines of these states, how then do you expect same treatment from the federal government to you? it‘s not just intriguing but confusing- except for the purpose of trade solidarity which when measured critically does not make sense. Public universities are bleeding no thanks to the combined onslaught of government and ASUU- any unionism that stifles growth should be jettisoned.
And the president of the Academic Union of Universities, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke should take it cool with his public outburst, he seems to be hard and harsh on almost everyone. his recent television appearances have shown a man without self-restraint and the ability to send his message across without being edgy and vituperative, he appears more like an opposition politician than a unionist. Managers of characters and learning must be seen to be shining examples to the public, teachers of conflict resolutions can‘t afford to be activators of avoidable impasse. let the struggle for Nigeria‘s public education be anchored on genuine whims and not on self-interest.
Frankly musing.
