You Should Read This INEQUALITIES IN THE NIGERIAN EDUCATION: A MATHEMATICAL APPROACH GREATER THAN ASUU, NOT EQUAL TO THE GOVERNMENT (> ASUU =/= GOVERNMENT) In the past, an entirely different story is told of education in this country. The old folks would say things like, “we had decent accommodation and lodgings, tuition was almost free, there was adequacy of infrastructures that would facilitate the learning process. Schools still had the touch of the Whites so they looked beautiful. On the campuses were free lunches wherein as a student you order what is enough for you. There is no worry about your welfare because your safety is paramount to the government. There are bursaries and special allowances especially if you school outside your state of origin. Those were times when the country was safe and you could travel any time of the day. Workers had their salaries plus Christmas and New Year bonuses paid regularly without delays. Gone are the good old days.” Those were some of the many sweet experiences of our parents and leaders who schooled about four to five decades ago. Honestly I’ve always felt like they made up all these stories. We don’t know the easy life they claim to have enjoyed any more than we see it. What we perceive of this education sickens one to the marrow. It is the declining status of the sector. Like a funeral in which the hearse driver is the government itself. The Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Non Academic Staff Union of Universities and the National Association of Nigerian Students are the deceased’s family. By extension, the Nigerian Labour Congress, the Nigerian Union of Teachers, the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, the Federal Health Workers, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and the National Union of Road Transport Workers to mention a few are uncles, aunties and relatives of the deceased. Well-wishers, friends and neighbors of the deceased mourning his death are the oil and gas, health, energy and power sectors, the ministries of works, information and national orientation, transportation, sports and tourism to mention a few. But who died? Eminent Nigerians present include presidents, legislators, and judiciaries who were either officiating priests or undertakers. The weight of the corpse upon their shoulders did not disturb their happiness. Why not? Their enemy, a man of the people is dead. As a matter of fact, the ever-ingesting bottomless gut of the government has a knife to the throat of education this time. The aim is not just to paralyze and make vegetative, it is to nurse it into coma with the hope of no return. After all, most of their wards are off the shores of this great nation, Nigeria. And so they’re less concerned be it dead or alive. We continue to siphon the funds engineered towards development and growth of the sector. Yet we blame the inconsistencies in education on under qualified resource personnel. How does the inadequate state of facilities in our institutions help the teaching-learning process? All we ask of you is some honesty; some integrity and motivation give us something we believe. I’m only one man with a voice to something we’ve got in common. For about fifteen weeks now, ASUU has embarked on a supposed journey of no return. This not being the first and neither will it be the last, at least no till the government is cured of its itchy ears. Oh! Who is to blame for the prevailing security challenges of the country? Who do we blame for the heart-bleeding corruption that has looted the oil sector like a burglar? Can we boast of the much orchestrated dividends of democracy over ten years it started? Why would federal health workers go on a week-long industrial action over payments, in a country of more than 150million people? Isn’t that disastrous? These and others are throbbing aches in the heart of the nation. With resolute determination and a government up to the task, all these can be battled and subdued in no time. But quite the contrary when it comes to education. The sector is much bigger than the government, ASUU or any other union whatsoever. Education is light and in its light we see life. Just like the spinal cord in the human body structure, it is very important. Education lays the strong foundation upon which you build the future of a nation. Such future will not be eroded by the erosive sands of time. It is at this vintage I will say the youths wonder if the government has them included in his plans. What they discover is their future lying dead along the street one a cold morning. He died of multiple stabs in his left chest. Who murdered the future? Where do we go from here? This future is the students you’ve prevented from schooling due to industrial actions of lengthen days. Today ASUU is on strike with NANS protesting. Couple of weeks ago, it was all federal health workers which led to the closure of teaching hospitals throughout the nation. The PHCN and Petroleum Exporters had their versions earlier in the year. Amidst these, the student is not allowed to school, he is rather sent back home due to social unrest. With due respect, do you remember the time Mr. President was advised to rename the University of Lagos when there were demanding socio-political, economic and security issues to tackle? Have you forgotten the ravenous NURTW clash in Oyo State that culminated in the death of a medical student, the NANS protests, and the suspension of the NURTW Oyo State Chapter for a while? I know the notorious New Year gift to all Nigerians from the president last January remains fresh in our intellectual minds. This same future is a medical student with six years ahead of him. He is a Mechanical Engineering student with five uninterrupted years on campus. Likewise, the future is a part 1 student of the Educational Foundations and Counseling department, Obafemi Awolowo University. He’ll be a degree holder in three years’ time. Alas, going by the trend of things, the future graduates only after summative years of eight, seven and six years respectively. Hold on a moment, along the line some would never make it back to school. Some would have been maimed; some are either dead or in an asylum, while some others end up in jail. Is this the future we wish our youths? “Wouldn’t you like to see them raised up next to good hospitals and good schools? We don’t want them in a juvenile facility or growing up with mental disabilities. When all this time you could have made a difference but you decided to roll with the party are you kidding me?” Their future is on the line here used like diamonds in the sun and dumped off forever. Dear parents, don’t sit back while the destinies of these kids vanish into thin air. This issue is a storm cloud at sea; we would all drown should it sink our rickety vessel, “so how about we tie ourselves together and get things done. Do what’s right for Nigeria.” It is way bigger than ASUU and can in no way be equated to the government. Currently, the government has no solution whatsoever to offer on its own.it has to be through a unanimous fight against the enemies of progress. Ever since the inception of private institutions which spread like the harmattan fire, parents have danced to their trappings in consolation for the turbulent federal institutions. The private sector has been of innumerable help to the sector. Yet we express our fear has follows: if the government fails to assume adequate responsibility of the state assets, then the number of students will triple the holding capacity of the various learning facilities. Should the government fail to implement the right educational policies that would advance the course of education in this country; should its falling standards continue to tread the downward path, then education will become a commodity for the black market which only the affluent can access and afford. Consequently, Nigeria is a nation whose governors, senators, ministers and several directors-general of different agencies do not embark on strike actions; but which has its public and civil servants, pensioners, doctors, nurses and other health workers, lecturers and their students alike constantly taking to the streets in demand for their legal rights, a rise in pay, an accumulated outstanding allowance, revocation of an unfavorable policy, ethno-religious justice, socio-political order , the list is infinite. These are the greedy ones, who are never content, right? Fellow Nigerians, these are not the moments to slumber. Awake, who is stealing what?
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:33:50 +0000
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