As an undergraduate
student in a prestigious university and with just a few weeks to
writing my final examination and graduate, hopes were very high.
Academic work became challenging, vigorous and stimulating.
The school was at the peak of an academic session. The long session was gradually coming to an end, the climax of which was an end of session examination that would add a golden crown to nights of sleepless adventure in “bookland”, midnight candles, and efforts at amounting to something in life. Indeed, hope had never soared that high in my youthful life.
Then, a few weeks to this period, the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on a “total, comprehensive and indefinite strike” to compel the Federal Government to implement an agreement reached with it in 2009 citing negligence on the part of government to faithfully implement an agreement it “freely” entered into with it. Let me quickly add that the government signed this agreement freely as a result of similar protracted industrial action in 2009 and another strike in 2011 that culminated in the 2102 Memorandum of Understanding signed between both parties to implement the agreement and improve upon the infrastructural development of Nigerian universities.
When this strike was announced, a part of me wanted a break very much as I was developing migraine from excessive reading (though I knew the effort would not be a waste when the results were out. Success being a by-product of hard work). But knowing the antecedent of ASUU and its likelihood of embarking on prolonged and protracted strikes, another part of me vehemently protested against another strike that would put everything on hold until further notice. At first, I thought the strike would not last for more than three weeks and then everything would be restored to normalcy. I followed the news vigorously (something I had not really had time to do previously), I listened to the radio at every hour, watched TV news hours, read newspapers and articles, online journals and even the social media just to catch the latest development on the ASUU strike.
With meetings being announced and rescheduled, I was literally looking forward to each meeting between ASUU and the Federal Government teams to find out when the impasse would be resolved. Like a fortune teller, I watched the sky, read the cloud, interpreted news and watched for signs that the strike would not linger more than necessary. But each time the news announced a “deadlocked meeting”, my heart missed a beat. Despair descended on me and I almost developed a heart attack. As the strike entered its first month, second month, and now third month, each passing day has become a forlorn dream, raising the same endless questions: When will ASUU call off its strike? When will the government be responsible to its citizens? When will Nigeria be free from sabotage? When will things ever be right in this country?
Having read so many perspectives on the current strike, protests, threats, appeals from different quarters calling on the Federal Government and ASUU to reach a compromise, I think I should add a voice of one crying in the wilderness to both parties to save our souls. It is heart-rending that in the 21st Century, when universities all over the world are breaking grounds in cutting-edge research, universities in Nigeria are locking up potential and killing dreams. They are shutting lights out of burning and talented youths willing to undertake greater exploits that will promote Nigeria. The youths are rendered the proverbial idle mind that becomes the devil’s workshop. It is indeed sad that this is happening in my lifetime. We can no longer sing with passion “the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain” or “to serve with heart and might” because our hope for the future is indeed dim due to incessant closure of our universities by ASUU.
Though patriotic, what ASUU is demanding is just as fair: its members’ academic earned allowances and improved funding for the education sector. Any nation that must develop indeed must take the education of its population seriously. It is also true that more funding without proper planning and implementation will amount to waste and corruption. It is in this regard that I challenge ASUU to think of better ways other than strike to address the rot in university education.
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/47529.html
The school was at the peak of an academic session. The long session was gradually coming to an end, the climax of which was an end of session examination that would add a golden crown to nights of sleepless adventure in “bookland”, midnight candles, and efforts at amounting to something in life. Indeed, hope had never soared that high in my youthful life.
Then, a few weeks to this period, the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on a “total, comprehensive and indefinite strike” to compel the Federal Government to implement an agreement reached with it in 2009 citing negligence on the part of government to faithfully implement an agreement it “freely” entered into with it. Let me quickly add that the government signed this agreement freely as a result of similar protracted industrial action in 2009 and another strike in 2011 that culminated in the 2102 Memorandum of Understanding signed between both parties to implement the agreement and improve upon the infrastructural development of Nigerian universities.
When this strike was announced, a part of me wanted a break very much as I was developing migraine from excessive reading (though I knew the effort would not be a waste when the results were out. Success being a by-product of hard work). But knowing the antecedent of ASUU and its likelihood of embarking on prolonged and protracted strikes, another part of me vehemently protested against another strike that would put everything on hold until further notice. At first, I thought the strike would not last for more than three weeks and then everything would be restored to normalcy. I followed the news vigorously (something I had not really had time to do previously), I listened to the radio at every hour, watched TV news hours, read newspapers and articles, online journals and even the social media just to catch the latest development on the ASUU strike.
With meetings being announced and rescheduled, I was literally looking forward to each meeting between ASUU and the Federal Government teams to find out when the impasse would be resolved. Like a fortune teller, I watched the sky, read the cloud, interpreted news and watched for signs that the strike would not linger more than necessary. But each time the news announced a “deadlocked meeting”, my heart missed a beat. Despair descended on me and I almost developed a heart attack. As the strike entered its first month, second month, and now third month, each passing day has become a forlorn dream, raising the same endless questions: When will ASUU call off its strike? When will the government be responsible to its citizens? When will Nigeria be free from sabotage? When will things ever be right in this country?
Having read so many perspectives on the current strike, protests, threats, appeals from different quarters calling on the Federal Government and ASUU to reach a compromise, I think I should add a voice of one crying in the wilderness to both parties to save our souls. It is heart-rending that in the 21st Century, when universities all over the world are breaking grounds in cutting-edge research, universities in Nigeria are locking up potential and killing dreams. They are shutting lights out of burning and talented youths willing to undertake greater exploits that will promote Nigeria. The youths are rendered the proverbial idle mind that becomes the devil’s workshop. It is indeed sad that this is happening in my lifetime. We can no longer sing with passion “the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain” or “to serve with heart and might” because our hope for the future is indeed dim due to incessant closure of our universities by ASUU.
Though patriotic, what ASUU is demanding is just as fair: its members’ academic earned allowances and improved funding for the education sector. Any nation that must develop indeed must take the education of its population seriously. It is also true that more funding without proper planning and implementation will amount to waste and corruption. It is in this regard that I challenge ASUU to think of better ways other than strike to address the rot in university education.
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/47529.html
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