ASUU STRIKE: Enter the Dragons

My bro o distribute 10,000 loaves of bread or do I go to the next meeting on Okada and share Akara? I have even worn jeans and T-shirt to present my speech and have sworn that the incumbent president, Mr. Olumide Lala has incurable rashes on his bum bum. All to no avail. Frustration is catching me o. My brother please come to my aid, we have to conquer these people o. If I try civilian tactics he no work, I go cross to the other side o . aaaaaaah am I appealing to the right person, shouldn’t I be talking to the Jagaban himself? Abeg, where is this keke Marwa we have to head up to the Lion of Bourdilon? Yes o, these ones are pre-historic. Just like the fossil animals they themselves taught us in school, they have allowed their brains go extinct and frozen up. Relying on very old theories and ways of thinking, they have continued to hit their heads on the wall, expecting the wall to shift which you will agree with me is impossible. I have since lost respect for lecturers especially their leaders. My in-law, Professor Mowete will kill me o, but my love for his sister and the possible withdrawal of her services in the ‘other room’ will not stop me from making my point in the most forceful manner that I can muster. You see, anytime I hear that lecturers are going on strike to fight for the same things they have been fighting for since they themselves were students, I get really upset. As perceived custodians of knowledge, I remain stupefied at their crass inability to see that the world has changed and moved on, leaving them behind with their tired theories and syllabuses. Fighting for increased government funding and welfare not only beats my imagination but also makes me start to understand why even my driver is looking for money to send his child to school abroad. ASUU has shown with these continued annual fights that they have lost the plot and also, relevance. I swear they need to all go have a collective rethink of their position in society for if they continue like this, we will only choose to ignore them. Today, government can no longer afford to keep funding tertiary education and the fight should be a total disengagement of government and the entry of private investors. Simple! Is this so hard for these our so-called eggheads to see? In recession with significant drop in government revenues, inflation and paucity of funds, government is forced to prioritise in a bid to achieve a balance in expenditure. So do you blame government when they put defence, health and agriculture ahead of education in their order of priority? When you are now fighting for increased salary as against the need to push more funds into power or the fight against Boko Haram, you will not blame government if you are ignored. The government should sell all these schools to the highest bidders and convert the NUC into a true regulatory body, providing guidelines and ensuring a responsible oversight environment for all stakeholders. Private money should be running education, the time for government involvement is over and if these lecturers cannot see this, how they will be able to teach and guide our children beats me. So ASUU please, commission a research work to look into government’s withdrawal from education and that way, you will find your Eldorado. The problem is the laziness of some of these our lecturers, people who still rely on research reports commissioned when Jonathan was running around without shoes to lecture in today’s world - where information is moving per second per second. Their fear is that they may not be able to attract private funding which chases quality and is guided by the forces of demand and supply. ASUU, you guys have lost the plot, kindly take a step back and smell the coffee. Let me leave you guys with this: I just recruited a young genius in my office. He attended the University of Benin where he studied something like creative arts. During the interview, I noticed a two-year lag period in his Curriculum Vitae and when I asked, he said he realised after graduating that he wasted four years of his life in school and that by the time he graduated, the world had passed him by. So he spent the next two years to re-educate himself on the internet at home and now he felt he can come out to face the world. You see!!!!! make una dey fight for better salary and welfare, your students are seeking for knowledge elsewhere. I just tire for these people.