It will be of great relief if the federal government will reconsider its agreements with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the situation of Nigerian students so as not to allow ASUU to embark on industrial action again.
I received the news with shock that there is likelihood of ASUU embarking on another strike on the 25th of this month on the refusal of the federal government to fulfill ASUU’s demand despite several agreements and MoUs signed.
I want both parties to note that many students dropped out of school while others completely lost hope and confidence of being educated and right thinking members of society as a result of ASUU’s strike for almost a year.
That being the case, ASUU and the federal government should please don’t be agents of destroying the future of the youths and Nigerians at large, because doing so will actually further deteriorate the nation’s situation to uncontrollable level.
Nigeria is in need of more productive youths to be rescued, and the only place to make one to be productive is the university, the citadel of learning as everything is being made there.
That is to say the fate of every nation depends on the university; the economists, physicians, engineers, academicians, nurses, marketers, politicians, agriculturists, among others, are groomed in the universities. Therefore, universities shouldn’t be neglected no matter the odds.
However, the protracted ASUU and federal government’s saga created room for foreign universities and private universities to graduate quack students due to high patronage. A lot of Nigerian students go to Benin republic, Ghana, among others African countries for education.
That means we are weakening our universities and strengthening other countries’ universities.
The point is, the more the federal government refuses to address the problems bedeviling Nigerian universities, the more the Nigerian university system will collapse. It’s the issue of ASUU and the federal government that brought about foreign studies, because students can’t keep waiting for ASUU and the federal government before going to the university and that’s why Nigerian students go abroad though they lack the requisite standard.
It was just of recent students were sent away from NYSC camps because of fake certificate obtained from foreign universities, therefore, all these are related case resulting from the protracted ASUU and the federal government’s strike issues; were Nigerian public universities not going on incessant strikes, nobody will go abroad for studies.
Again, when universities are on strike many of Nigerian students, especially the jobless ones, engage in heinous acts, which l think is the reason behind #EndSARS protest, and incessant students abduction in schools.
Moreover, the federal government should note that, no government institution should be given more priority than universities, because without universities the whole nation will be in a dilemma.
On a last note, the federal government should please look at ASUU’s demand with a view to meeting them urgently. On its part, ASUU should please bear or manage with the little on ground for a better Nigeria because we students are your kids, kids that are interested in changing the direction of the nation to head the right path. I wish ASUU and the federal government will consider this important.
Mustapha Ibrahim,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri
