By Sandra Ijeoma Okoye
It will not be wrong in this context to lament that gone are the days when undergraduates matriculate into any given university in Nigeria, and in the next 4 years they would be seen participating in a convocation adorning graduation gowns, with their loved ones, particularly parents, rejoicing and snapping photographs with them. Some will leave the campus, and literarily take the excitement to the neighborhoods where close family and members join hands with them amid eating sumptuous meals and literarily drowning themselves in the sea of assorted drinks.
No doubt, the foregoing views graphically illustrates an era when youths get admitted into universities, and graduate at the appropriate time as state in the brochure that accompanied the admission form. Paradoxically, such stories sound like old tales to the current crop of undergraduates on account of incessant strikes which the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has over the years been abusing as they perennially embark on strike at the slightest provocation. Not few Nigerians are at the moment asking if ASUU does not have any other strategy of engaging the government other than to embark on strike to the detriment of innocent undergraduates. Please, bear in mind that one is not being saucy in this context to remind the leadership of ASUU of Albert Einstein’s Parable of Quantum Insanity which says, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
It is germane to remind the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, the minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adam and the minister of labour and employment, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige to shift ground and desist from truncating the educational pursuit of our children. In fact, it is so sad that the university students since mid-February have been subjected hugely to disrupted learning. Consequently, they have thrown them into the streets like sheep without a shepherd because of the ongoing University Lecturers’ strike. Who knows if they are purposely elongating the strike for the students to join the politicians as foot soldiers during their campaign as general elections beckon. The most salient observation to note in this piece is that all the personalities that are unarguably protracting the strike can afford to send their children and wards to Ivy League universities that cut across America and Europe. I won’t comment much on the foregoing allegation as I will resort to take solace in African proverb that says that “It is only God that knows whether the one that is sharing meat with his teeth has swallowed some morsels into his or her mouth or not.”
Permit me to say that I was inspired to express this view that is anchored on a question headline thus; “When Will Ngige, Adamu And Osodeke Shift Ground For University Students To Go Back To School?”
I must confess that I was inspired to express this view after I read a story on an online news platform that reported that “Nigerian rapper, singer, and Big Brother Naija Season 5 winner, Olamilekan Massoud Al-Khalifah Agbeleshebioba, popularly known as Laycon, has slammed the Nigerian government over its attitude towards the ASUU strike situation. Laycon took to his Twitter page to rant, expressing that the government had abandoned the educational needs of the students while focusing their attention on the forthcoming general elections alone.
In fact, one may not be wrong to say that Laycon may not be alone in this season of anxiety which the impasse have caused by ASUU and FG has by each passing day been assuming heightening dimension since it kicked off as a warning strike on February 14, 2022. It is therefore advisory to let both the President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and minister of labour and employment, Dr. Chris Ngige know that for not respectively shifting ground that they are endangering the collective future of Nigerian youths.
The danger that is inherent in the strike action, and which is detrimental to the future of Nigerian youths that are in various universities across the country was what Education reporters in Nigeria, under the aegis of the Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN) saw when they on Monday, April 25, 2022 staged a peaceful protest to demand the immediate reopening of public universities. The peaceful protest, which took off from the Lagos State Television, LTV Complex in Ikeja, saw the journalists heading for Lagos State House of Assembly complex.
In order not to repeat myself in this context, it suffices to proverbially plead to the trio who are no doubt representatives of ASUU and the federal government to shift grounds for the sake of our children, who are no doubt the leaders of tomorrow. After all, an African proverb says “If you cannot eat lumpy pounded yam, you should eat it because of the delicious soup. Interpretatively put, the trio should because of the future of our children who have been idling away all this while shift ground, and reach a favorable agreement. While waiting for them to reach an agreement, it is important to once again ask, “When will Ngige, Adamu and Osodeke shift ground for university students to go back to school?
