Has Nigeria lost the will?

On re-integration of repentant Boko Haram members

There was a time when the promise of “Free Education for All by the Year 2000”, “Free Medical Care for All by the Year 2000” and “Free Housing for All by the Year 2000” rang in the ears of people, warming the hearts of all. Security, the first responsibility of government, was a given, needing no specific mention. These promises were easily believable because governance then had a purpose, thereby giving people hope. Evidence was in the programmes laid out regularly as part of National Development Plans, committing government of the day to certain goals and objectives.

Today, it is the groans and plaints of those in power that “Government alone cannot fund Security, Education, Healthcare, Infrastructure” or whatever that overwhelm the hearing of Nigerians. Even more irritating are the grand announcements that follow: Government needs “$25 trillion to fund Infrastructure” or “N2 trillion is needed to fund university education yearly”, and so on. As if Rome was built in a day.

These musings were aroused by the latest bout, the rematch between the Federal

Thank you Mal. Yakubu Mohammed for the piece on reintegration of Boko Haram members into the society. Indeed the matter should be handled carefully. Some measures and steps are required to be taken before granting pardon to the captured terrorists.

There must be re-socialisation, re-education and rehabilitation. It’s a long and tedious process. You can’t just simply Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU ) on the issue of funding university education. As has been the case since 2000, ASUU is calling out government over agreements hastily signed and promises carelessly given by previous administrations over this vexed issue.

Today, as before, the Winner and still Champion .... ASUU. Unless this time around government develops spine and holds the line against extravagant demands in the face of obvious truths.

ASUU’s rise to power began when it persuaded the Shagari administration to remove university teachers’ pay from the Salary Grade Level System introduced under the Udoji Commission on the Reform of the Public Service for all public-sector employees less than a decade earlier.

Problems in higher education in the country and the perennial tussle between the federal government and ASUU are so deep that a new beginning is required. The federal government should declare force majeuere on all commitments previously entered into and negotiate new terms and believe their mere utterance of regrets and assume that they are now clean. Some of them carried out so many dehumanizing acts like killing their parents and siblings, raping their friends and aunties.

Also, did the government get the consent of the people that were attacked before pardoning the culprits? The act of terrorism must end and the traumatized people reassured of safety and security before the conditions with ASUU. Accrued benefits from previous periods should however be settled. Government must wrest back, even as autonomy in teaching and research is guaranteed. Students’ admission and population should depend on available infrastructure and faculty - there should be a cap for each institution as well as programmes for the continuous training and development of the latter.

With regard to the current strike by ASUU, government must apply the “No Work No Pay rule.” It’s the law of the land and of common sense. In other climes unions prepare “strike funds” before going on strike. It’s spurious argument that lecturers engage in research even if they abstain from teaching. To re-phrase a famous dictum: university can endure with the absence of research but cannot endure without teaching.

It’s crunch time for government and ASUU. The two sides must negotiate on the basis of current realities and their responsibilities for the future of higher education in the country. talk of amnesty can have any space, not when there are still some attacks from the Boko Haram members. It will take a while after the insurgency before normalcy can return to the areas that have been under the control of Boko Haram. Therefore the federal government must create a rehabilitation camp, well guarded, staffed by sociologists, physicians and experts on psychology.