According to Nelson Mandela, the first black man to be elected the president of South Africa, “Education is the great engine of personal development.
“It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine, and that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”
It is a proven fact that education is the most powerful weapon that one can use to change the world. Also, and according to Usman dan Fodio, “A kingdom can endure with unbelief but cannot endure with injustice.”
A lot of these students who were once enthusiastic when they got admission have suddenly felt lethargic towards their academics, due to these incessant strike actions
The lingering strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is a crude injustice being meted on Nigerian youths in public universities and their parents/guardians.
Since February 14, lecturers at the various public universities in Nigeria have kept the gates of our universities under lock and key. This is the fifth month of the impasse between ASUU and the Federal Government, yet the president has not seen anything wrong with the situation.
The Nigerian president and his vice are busy touring the world while one of the critical sectors of the country’s economy (education) is being mutilated. How do we justify that the people we entrusted power to run the affairs of Nigeria are the ones raping us to death? How best can we explain the fact that the children of the poor can no longer get university education because the government has refused to do the needful?
We want to align our philosophy with Chuba Okadigbo, one-time Senate president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who once said, “Facts speak for themselves.” A president who would rather donate $1 million to the Taliban in Afghanistan than upgrade the facilities in our tertiary institutions, or construct a rail line to the Niger Republic with borrowed money just because, as reported, he wants to be connected with his families there, tells you where the pendulum swings.
Under this very same government, ASUU was on strike for a whopping nine months, even during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown.
A clinical x-ray of the number of times ASUU has gone on strike under this government since its inception in 2015 speaks for itself. In 2016, we had the first baptism of the ASUU strike that lasted for seven days and in 2017 the punishment was upgraded to 35 days of ASUU strike. In 2018, ASUU downed tools for 19 days and this continued till February 8, 2019.
It is as obvious as the sun that rises in the East that this incessant strike action continues to take a huge toll on the academic performance of Nigerian students, especially during prolonged strikes like the one we are experiencing now.
A lot of these students who were once enthusiastic when they got admission have suddenly felt lethargic towards their academics, due to these incessant strike actions. The Federal Government, in collaboration with ASUU, has arrested and is wasting the development of our students for these months without any sign of concern.
We cannot quantify the loss. Even if we try to quantify it in monetary value, we cannot quantify it in terms of the psychological trauma it has on both the students and their parents.
A country that fails in the education sector has woefully failed in everything. This is because of the well-known fact that knowledge is power. Seemingly, many Nigerian students are lagging behind globally as a result of the incessant strike actions by the stakeholders and the nonchalant attitude of the government towards education.
ASUU, on its part, has not done well with its list of demands per time. Most of the lecturers are far well paid compared with some civil servants. Is it not an irony that the incumbent government was ushered in by the lecturers who served as returning officers with controversial results, and today…
How come ASUU has not been able to probe vice-chancellors of various universities on the internally generated revenues? ASUU need to start the clean-up exercise from its very domain.
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One thing is certain, if education collapses, the country will collapse with it. The politicians who believe that they are safe because they have their children abroad and/or can afford the cost of private universities, or even those who are exploiting the opportunity to invest in private school business will soon realise that they are wrong.
According to a 2015 UNICEF report, more than two decades of experience in development and emergency response have shown that education can make a lasting difference in children’s lives.
But education, not just good for children, it’s good for nations. Investing in education isn’t just the right thing to do, it is smart economics.
Education can put people on a path towards good health, empowerment, and employment. It can help to build more peaceful societies. And the benefits of girls’ education extend to their own children who are often healthier and more educated because their mothers went to school.
Evidence shows that, on average, each additional year of education boosts a person’s income by 10 percent and increases a country’s GDP by 18 percent. Some researchers estimate that if every child learned to read, around 170 million fewer people would live in poverty. That is the summary of it all!
