Education
How Nigerian Students Can Bring An End To ASUU Strike
The narrative of industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is no new knowledge within the regrettable imbroglio of withering standards in the educational system in Nigeria. It is a blazing inferno whose embers have been fanned by successive administrations; a blazing inferno that is almost burning the promise of an entire generation to cinders.
Indeed, the frequency of ASUU strikes in Nigeria has occasioned itself as par for the course in the light of the flagrant failure by the government to definitively commit the required resources to revitalize public universities capable of transmitting universal knowledge to it’s students as required by any institution parading itself as such.
As customary with this film which we have seen perhaps too many times, recriminations continue to rent the air, with the government staying resolute in its stance while ASUU continues to play the victim in the midst of the drama.
While the airwaves continue to buzz over the latest ASUU strike which is shaping out to be the ugliest of all time, Eko Hot Blog takes a look at why it may boil down to the victims of this broken system to raise their voices and be heard.
READ ALSO: FG Moves To Crush ASUU By Registering Rival Union
(1) The EndSARS protests and the disbandment of a rogue police unit: The EndSARS protest may have ended on a tragic note, particularly with regard to the shooting at the Lekki toll gate that claimed the lives of peaceful protesters who had gone out to demand better governance from their leaders, but Nigerians at home and abroad who had in one way or another decried the disbandment of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad stand with a moral victory of having helped to bring this societal menace to a screeching halt. This has seen a significant decline in the wanton level of police brutality which had subtly become the law of our collective existence. Incidentally, many of those who took part in the EndSARS protests were Nigerian students, who, like many Nigerians had recognized the need to slay the beast that had sent many innocent Nigerians to premature deaths.
There is really no telling under what guise the disbanded police unit is currently operating, but the fact remains that their nefarious activities have been curbed to the barest minimum and Nigerian students can doubtlessly take a leaf from this playbook to hold the government to its fundamental responsibility.
(2) Staying out of the conversation will only promote the status quo: Many have described the current feud between ASUU and the Federal Government as the proverbial narrative where two elephants take to the field of battle leaving the grass to bear the brunt of the duel. As common as this aphorism may sound, it continues to play out as the reality for Nigerian students, who, despite being the most smirched by the current situation continue to sit on the sidelines with bated breath hoping for the two giants to call time on their battle; but staying out of the conversation may not yield the desired result given the ugly manner this rift has played out. The time may not be more auspicious than now for Nigerian students to say boo to a goose and join in on the negotiations aimed towards saving what is left on an already battered system.
(3) Backing an aggressive strike action tantamounts to firing blanks: Industrial action, in its fundamental essence is usually geared towards backing the government to a corner to take necessary action to mend perceived ailments within civil and public service. In a broken system like ours where deficiencies and inadequacies trail every segment of civil and public service, industrial action has often become a necessary evil. However, it is common knowledge to Nigerians that strike action by public universities has often been ignored by the government due to the obvious fact that such an action has never ruffled the feathers of the political class whose children attend world class institutions abroad where the deficiencies and rot they have promoted back home are not entertained. As a result, strike action merely occasions itself as locking off the basement when the very persons you intend to lock out live in the penthouse.
Due to an unfortunate consequence of bad governance, Nigerian students have lost regrettably, one year which should have placed them on the launchpad to garnering universal knowledge to negotiate their individual fortunes and that of an entire generation by extension. The reality therefore dawns that the people who benefit from the system are not expected to change it. It’s the little guys who need to raise their voices and be heard.
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