Former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili
Dear Hon. Minister,
As a professor and mother, I have no
doubt that you are aware of the fact that your ministry has a crucial
role to play in how the future of this country will be. If Nigeria will
remain as a going concern and team up with the rest of humanity to make
the world a better place, will depend mainly on the role of the
ministry you head. A strike by the ASUU is therefore a strike at the
future of this nation and any shot aimed at the future of our great
country must be deflected by you as the minister of education. This is
the enormity of the responsibility which God Almighty has placed on your
shoulders. If democracy will survive in this nation, your ministry
cannot be left out
Honourable minister, every nation that
wants to make meaningful progress in every sphere of life gives quality
attention to four major areas. These are education, security, law and
order and health. A man without education is not only vulnerable, he
will kill others. A man without good health is a walking corpse. A man
without security is as good as dead. Where there is no law and order,
people return to the jungle as resorting to self help becomes the order
of the day. In all these four sectors, education, whether formal or
informal, is the most important hence Jesus Christ said in the bible:
“my people perish for lack of knowledge”. A nation that does not know is
a dead nation.
It is against this background that I
urge you to do all that is needful to ensure that the current ASUU
strike is resolved without further delay. Honourable minister, what is
N87 or N97billion to a nation that is concerned about its tomorrow? The
fight of ASUU, you will agree, is genuine even if it is one strike too
many. As a professor of education, would you say you were really
teaching your students before you went into government? Would you say
that the quality of learning you got before you became a professor is
what you were giving to your students either at the graduate or
undergraduate level? Is the school environment what a university should
be? Obi Nwakanma, a professor of English in an American university and a
newspaper columnist, once narrated his experience when he visited the
University of Jos from where he graduated 25yrs ago. His conclusion was
that what we call universities in Nigeria today are nothing but
ghettoes. I agree with him totally.
Honourable minister, is it not a shame
that our children flood the universities in the whole of Europe and
America just as we have turned India to a Mecca of sort for medical
attention? It is not just shameful. It is ridiculous to say the least.
What is in Ukraine, South Africa or any other nation of the world that
we cannot replicate in Nigeria? How brilliant are other nations that we
have to jump into the plane to seek knowledge from them?
The gentleman that taught me Political
Sociology in my penultimate year in the university visited Germany
sometime in the 1990s to see his brother. He visited one of the
universities in that country. When he compared his school back in
Nigeria to what he saw in Germany, he could not manage the shock arising
from the difference. Upon his return to Nigeria, he resigned his
appointment immediately and went into private business. Today he is in
politics. This is the degree of decay our universities have sunk into.
If the truth must be told ma, what ASUU
is asking for is pittance compared to what has been stolen either
directly from the nation’s coffers, through crude oil theft or the
scandalous salaries and wages members of the National Assembly are paid.
Only recently, a former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, revealed
to the nation that in a short space of eight years, members of the
National Assembly had got N1trillion from the national purse. What did
they use it for, you may ask? As if that was not enough to anger any
sane person, eminent Nigerians have been expressing shock over the
proposed plan to put members of the National Assembly on life pension
even when they may not have served for more than four years. There is no
way anyone interested in building a strong nation would not support the
stand ASUU has taken. I was shocked to my bone marrows when an
assistant lecturer revealed to me recently that his monthly salary was
not up to N150,000. Let us face it, in the Nigeria of today this is a
ridiculous pay for someone of that status.
I have read the comment of the Minister
of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy to the effect that
the Government of Nigeria cannot release the sum of N92 or N87billion to
ASUU. Please do not be influenced by that position as this will do no
good to this nation. While I do not advocate the release of funds into
the economy without tying it to a regenerative project, it is my view
that ASUU’s request will not do the economy any harm. Think of it: a
nation that can pay several billions to workers in the power sector as
severance pay because the government wants to privatise the sector is
saying that it cannot provide Nigerian universities with a sum below
N90billion. Who is deceiving who? The truth is that the power sector has
been sold at pittance to those in Government. They therefore do not
want anything that will disturb them from taking over their new ATM. But
with ASUU’s demand, they do not stand to gain anything. Therefore,
there is no reason why government wants to pursue the negotiation with
an intention to succeed. Is this the way public universities are in
civilised nations? How many members of the ruling elite send their
children to the nation’s universities? Please save the nation’s children
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