Counting the cost since February 14, 2022, when the Academic Staff Union of Universities downed tools to demand from the Federal Government inter alia the improvement in the state of the sinus node of the appellate educational vehicle in this country, the monumental casualty is of catastrophic proportion.
First to feel the brunt are the university students and their parents. The former get bashing and dashing of their planned future and denting on their emotions. The latter contend with the pressures of parenting as they seek to grow up children in a society that is rife with scorching economic hardship and wanton societal decadence against the backdrop of dreadful, crippling and fatal insecurity. The ensuing restiveness remains fertile soil that will likely breed a child against the dreams of his/her parents.
For the lecturers and their families, the fracturing difficulties of making ends meet are ravaging lecturers and their dependents. The mounting pressure to settle basic bills, which include, but are not limited to, feeding, rent, electricity, hospital as well as other bills is of staggering scale.
Thirdly, for society and the future, we count the cost accruing from the epileptic ebb and flow of the educational system which only gets these restive youths to grow into unproductive individuals. These half-baked graduates with battered emotions may be part of the problems of this country as we gravitate down the lane into the future which, though hopeful, is painted with colours of gloom and doom.
Still, the feud deepens. The government has so far failed to look into the germane demands of ASUU honestly, passionately or dispassionately. They, however, have kept dilly-dallying with delay tactics and engaged in brazen blackmail (no work, no pay) and withholding of salaries.
The government knows that they have not met anyone of the issues that led to the strike. Come on!
Threats of proscription: When the government knows it lacks the legal or moral grounds to interfere, mitigate or abrogate the basic rights of freedom of association nor freedom of expression in a democracy where the rule of law is supreme. They know also the academia is irreplaceable at least not with a fiat, but is a gradual transfer of knowledge from the old to the young, the most experienced to an apprentice, and from a mentor to a mentee as one generation hands over the baton to the next.
Threats of court action: When the government knows that this pathway will only lead to the prolongation of the strike by an imminent elongated legal battle that will ensue, running for months or perhaps years as it spans the gamut of technicalities from the lower court to the apex adjudicator before the substantive suit is put forth for determination, running through all the rungs in a cynical, pendulous and yet cyclical motion. The students will continue to stay at home while the lecturers and their families linger in suffering during the pendency of this unnecessary, unproductive and trophyless wrestling as the attorneys argue in court.
This journey from February 14, 2022, was only a warning strike rolled severally over months. Now we slide into the slippery slope of a total, indefinite and comprehensive strike as declared on August 29, 2022 by ASUU. The longest walk has only begun as the uncanny road winds through dark tunnels into territories unknown, with the only assurance of a bitter sojourn indeed only for the students, the lecturers and Nigerians.
A pity! I pity the students and their loved ones; I pity the lecturers and their families; I pity the Nigerian populace and the future of this country.
Do I pity a government that apparently looks unmoved, unmotivated and unshaken? Why should anyone do? Does the government actually care? Their Children do not study within the shores of this country or in Nigerian public schools. When they do, many might have bought their way into the courses of choice and the grades they desire. This is on the background of a lavished life in schools within or without the geographical coinage of Nigeria.
Most of them are assured of a future, guaranteed by the loots from our common wealth and patrimony. We hear daily of funds lost in the most unspeakable and despicable of ways. Indeed, these figures of looted funds that rattle and unsettle our eardrums are just what come to limelight.
Most of them got into offices through a manipulated electoral process and not by the mandate of the people to whom they are not accountable. The masses can therefore go to hell and perish therein.
Both parties must come to a table with genuine and considerate compromises. It is long that this calamity has befallen our nation. Seven months “no be beans” for those that are suffering, but indeed it appears to be “rice” for those who are enjoying. Yet a common destructive future looms around all of us, as the “titanic” sails towards the iceberg. God save Nigeria; God bless Nigeria.
- Dr. Innocent Emmanuel is of the Department of Pathology, University of Jos
