ASUU Strike Cancer: What Is Our Priority As A Nation? l Usoro Emmanuel
What Is Our Priority As A Nation ?
Most of the time, when you analyze Nigeria and her problems, you might conclude that it is an incurable viral infection like the popular HIV and Aids that ravaged most parts of Africa in the 1980’s.
For the purpose of this article, I would love to focus on the “ASUU Strike Cancer” that has reached its 4th stage. I made no mistake when I said it has reached its 4th stage of cancer because our university system is about to be turned into the deplorable and devastating state of our government primary and secondary schools.
For some of us of this generation, we were born into this “ASUU Strike Cancer,” of which at some point, we thought “ASUU Strike” was an annual carnival like the CalabarCarnival, only that in the former you see people with “zero joy” caring placards.
Getting into the university, we realised it was not just a culture or norm to embark on this annual carnival, but it had become a genetic composition and one of the laid down rules of the National University Commission (NUC), proudly sponsored by the Ministry of Education.
This carnival is capable of changing a 4-year course to 10 years; keeping medical students in school for 20 years; keeping Masters Degree students in school for 5 years or more; and a host of other mouth-watering “benefits”.
Far from this, it has been scientifically proven that the government of Nigeria down to the state level is infected with a syndrome called the “We no go ever know our priorities syndrome”.
This is the unexplained habit of showing a lack of critical thinking with every decision and policy made. In some cases, you witness an outright display of absurd and unimagined blindness to the nation’s actual priorities.
This virus has eaten so deep into the system so much that a certain government in the country prefers to use billions of Naira to build a church auditorium instead of paying the owed gratuities and pensions of retired civil servants.
Recently, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, in his response to the ongoing ASUU strike, told Nigerians that “the Federal Government cannot meet the needs of ASUU due to lack of funds.”
Some questions beg for answers; at this point,
Is this not the same government that has spent billions on child feeding programs?
Is this not the same government that has spent millions rehabilitating Boko Haram members?
Is this not the same government that has spent billions giving paltry N10,000 loans to market women?
Is this not the same government that just recently donated $1 million to the Afghanistan humanitarian fund?
.. and so many other unnecessary adventures at this stage of the development of the country.
Do we really know our priorities? Sad!!!
This is not to sound religious, but I am forced to agree with Reuben Abati, the former Special Assistant to GoodluckJonathan on Media and Publicity, who was also forced to agree with the popular belief “that indeed there are some spiritual forces, witchcraft or perhaps evil spirits, that affect the decision process made at the highest level of leadership in the country”. This was brilliantly captured in his column in The Guardian.
Interesting times ahead!!!
