On the ongoing ASUU strike

As an ordinary Nigerian who spent about nine years before bagging a first degree, a young politician and a man from a less privileged family, I am in a good position to write on the current strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Right from my childhood days, various industrial actions by ASUU have had negative effects on me.

In this country called Nigeria, everything has been going wrong, education inclusive. In fact, the education sector is in shambles. From primary to tertiary level, teachers are poorly paid. And there’s no motivation whatsoever.

It is a gross misplacement of priority that pupils in various primary schools across the country sit on bare floor and under the tree to study, yet government is spending billions of naira on what they call school feeding programme. Instead of adding value to the academic wellbeing of the pupils, the programme is rather a conduit pipe through which government officials and their cronies siphon public fund.

Every concerned and right-thinking Nigerian should support the ASUU in their struggle to reposition education in this country. In fact, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) should join the strike immediately. It is not enough to complain without taking action. If the only language our government understands is strike, then let’s speak the language to them, loud and clear. It is time to reposition the education sector. That’s the change we want, not the one on air.

I implore the ASUU to start mobilising for educational revolution from the grassroots. This is because you cannot get the standard you are looking for in our universities when the standard in our primary and secondary schools is nothing to write home about. So let the strike be total and encompassing. I am sure that ASUU officials are capable of organising a nationwide revolution in the education sector; and they should do this if they are not selfish in their struggle.

Unfortunately, the elite are not bothered about the standard of education in the country because they are using it to their advantage. They actually do not want other people to be well educated, lest they pose a challenge to them. They want to continue on the saddle to the detriment of others.

Is it not a known fact that sons and daughters of the so-called elite, including the president, Senate president, governors etc, study overseas while children of the poor are allowed to suffer in Nigeria? That is why every gentle appeal falls on the deaf ears of those in various positions of authority. I dare say that this is the worst form of corruption.