Dr. Fagge, it is not wise, humanly
speaking to subject other people’s
children to untold and unnecessary
sufferings and hardship, simply
because your own children are…
outside the country enjoying
themselves while claiming to be
attending universities.
After spending almost 2 whole months at
home (60 days to be precise),doing nothing
academically positive to my bright future,I
am beginning to feel like a wasted vessel in
my parent’s house already.After spending a
considerable number of years at home
before gaining my admission into one of
Nigeria’s first generation universities (3
years to be precise), I am left wallowing in
some sort of dirty pit,dug by this
unrepentant group called ASUU for the
Federal Government of Nigeria which has
also caught millions of helpless Nigerian
students like me in the midst of a ceaseless
gun-fire that has now made ASUU a re-
occurring prayer point in every student’s
mind and mouth.
Judging from previous experiences on past
strike actions emanating from the camp of
ASUU,senior contemporaries,mostly
graduates and students in their finals say
this strike would last the length of its
word, which from its inception was said to
be lasting 100 days.But to what benefit is
this to us the suffering students who are
languishing and wasting away at home at
the mercy of every unwanted sympathizer
who comes by visiting.Since the inception
of this unending strike,I have been forced
to abandon my books and stay glued to the
internet, watching out for any news on
ASUU and their negotiations with the
Federal Government.I stumbled upon this
article very recently,and it has even
heightened my fear on how much longer
we are going to spend at home.I’ll share
just some parts of this article to drive home
my point.
This is an excerpt of the content of a letter
written by Dr Nasir Isa Fagge (Chairman of
ASSU) to the Head of National Economic
Empowerment Development Strategy,
NEEDs Assessment, and Benue State
Governor, Gabriel Suswam, after the
release of N100 billion for infrastructural
development in various universities across
the nation, and N30 billion for the overdue
lecturers salary and allowances.It reads
thus:
“We observe that the Committee is so far
mentioning only N100billion. If the
implementation is to be related to the
funding requirements in the 2009 ASUU/FG
agreement and the January 2012 MoU,
what is due 2012 and 2013 is N500 billion
not N100 billion. Only the provision of this
sum will meet the immediate needs of the
universities. “Our Union is very
apprehensive of the manner in which the
sources of the initial N100 billion to be
used for the stimulation of the process are
shrouded in secrecy. We believe that
monies that belong to the universities
should not be blocked and recycled. This
will not only be counter-productive, but
will brew even deeper crises in the system.
ASUU will not accept this.”
The letter goes forward to talk about the
manner at which these contracts must be
awarded,and how the execution of these
contracts must be handled.But with all due
respect sir (Dr. Nasir Fagge), what is my
business or probably yours with who gets
these contracts and who does not? or is
that what you were appointed,elected or
selected to oversee? I for one do not find it
funny that I am at home, languishing for
nothing and wasting away my intellectual
abilities simply because I am in a Federal
Government/ASUU controlled university,
when my mates with whom I got admitted
together, and are in Private Universities are
already moving into another session, and I
am yet to start the second semester of my
First year.
Dr. Fagge, it is not wise, humanly speaking
to subject other people’s children to untold
and unnecessary sufferings and hardship,
simply because your own children are
either through with their education or if
they are still in school, are somewhere
outside the country enjoying themselves
while claiming to be attending universities.
As a victim of this inhumane act being
perpetrated by you and your colleagues, I
must be very blunt and point-blank with
my attack on you sir. What is it to us that
the Federal Government has refused to
disburse the full monies required for the
building, renovating and maintenance of
hostels, laboratories, lecture rooms and
theatres? At the present moment, most of
these schools have adequate number of
these facilities in their possession. Even for
those who do not have it all, they must be
reminded that you can’t have all you need
to be successful all at once. Even the Great
Wall of China was not built in a day. We
must be content with what we have, and
only strive to improve it as the days go by.
Planning to extend the strike because the
N500 billion you requested wasn’t fully
released to you is totally and absolutely
wrong, and is very unacceptable to us as
Nigerian students.The plans for this money
may seem laudable, but for God’s sakes,
can’t we make do of what we have now
and forge ahead till more is made available
for us to use? Millions of Nigerian students
nationwide have all been sitting glued to
screens, televisions, mobile phones, laptops,
iPads, and various forms of screens at odd
hours of the day, just to hear that the
strike has been called off. It’s very unfair
on ASUU to decide our future for us, and
decide it in the manner in which they
have done. We are the leaders of
tomorrow, and we must shape that
tomorrow today by being the best we can
be at our books.
As of now, while I am writing this
letter,my senior colleagues in the Law
departments and Medical departments in
Federal Universities are stranded, while
their mates are getting ready for Law
School and Medical School respectively.
Using this biblical allusion, ”What shall it
profit ASUU if it receives the full
allocation it is promised, and lose the
futures put in its care at the end of the
day? To me, the building of Category 1,
Category 2,Category 3, bedspaces and more
is an uneconomical waste of useful
resources. Why not invest a larger chunk
of this monies into what will ultimately
make the future of my generation.
Someone once said, “The future of
yesterday is today,and that of tomorrow
starts from now. Build the Future you want
to see tomorrow today, and when that
future comes,you will not be regretful of it.
In conclusion to this letter of mine, I need
to point out to those at the helm of Affairs
in ASUU that the immediate effect of this
strike action is on the image of the various
universities whose academic calenders
have been brutally altered by two months
already. And like the elders would say “In
a disagreement between two people, it is
the wise one that usually backs out for
peace to reign in the land”. I know that I’ll
be writing the minds of millions of
Nigerian Students, when I ask you to please
consider us and call off this strike action.
For the sakes of our futures hanging in the
balances in your hands, PLEASE CALL OFF
THE STRIKE.
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