I never thought I could do a story such as this about Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) because of the respect and admiration I have, not only for the profession but for those in the field, yet I owe humanity a duty to speak the truth if situation demands.
Firstly, we must acknowledge there's no perfect government anywhere in the whole world. Even in America, their government had to be shut down in order to sort out some unresolved issues bothering on health insurance. But in a situation where government chose to neglect a certain key sector of the economy, reactions are bound to occur. It's only a pity in our land because the only language understood by our government and the workers especially the university lecturers is strike action. Over the years, this action has immensely contributed to the rots in our education section. I had my own share of it when I was welcomed with 3-month strike action upon being admitted into OOU in year 2000.
These lecturers have been going on strike since the IBB days and yet the educational system is deteriorating by the day. In fact, this action began the decadent era that our educational sector has not recovered from till today. While the educational system is deteriorating, their take home pay has been increasing at the end of every strike action and the innocent students have always been at the receiving end..
It's therefore obvious that ASUU of Nigeria has been and still making themselves a demigod to the Nigerian masses. They go on strike at all times in the name of a better compensation of their services. Question is what better compensation do they really require and for what service?
It is important to mention here that ASUU is one of the highest paid government employees. They earn far more that the civil servant, they earn more than even the medical doctors in their level, they earn more than the Nigeria military in their level and they earn more than the Nigerian police. Yet, amidst same people, there are sizable number of intellectual misfits parading themselves as dons on our various campuses. I think it's high time the government carried out a staff audit as it is not proper to use tax payers money to continue to pay the salaries of academic errors.
They formulate and charge for more extra time than they put in as they do not provide free services during the allocated time meant for their services. They charge every Nigerian student for their marks and grades, they sell all their lectures that they have been paid for in form of hand-outs. They individually has made the Nigerian universities a get-rich-venture for themselves while they hold the future of Nigerian students to ransom at every opportunity!
In a class of 50, they sell 50 hand-outs at N500 - N1000, and each of them could have as much as 6 classes to lecture. So in essence, they are assured of an extra N300, 000 per semester, that is if they do not end up selling hand-outs twice in the semester. Now imagine what will be earned in a class of 200 students?
The questions I expected from those sympathetic with these lecturers are: what happened to the past funds made available for the universities by the government? What about foreign grants? Are ASUU being paid for these months they have not been working?
And these happen in almost all the courses. In this case where students are ignored to stay at home just because of some extra accumulated pay, who is heartless here, the FG or the lecturers?
The questions I expected from those sympathetic with these lecturers are: what happened to the past funds made available for the universities by the government? What about foreign grants they have been receiving over the years? Are ASUU being paid for these months they have not been working?
Sometimes, it's not all our government's fault and it's high time students stand up to face their real enemies!
- Saint-Olawale Jimoh
(Observers' Reflections Int'l)
www.saint-olawalejimoh.blogspot.com
©2013
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