Article published in The Nation Newspaper
02/12/2009
Could the obnoxious circular from NUC 444/77 have ‘The wicked hand of Government-’, not God, but power drunk officials and President Yar Adua behind it as the NUC Executive Secretary could not have ‘acted alone’ and must have been ‘pushed’ as it shoots him, the NUC and the ASUU-Federal Government Agreement in the groin. President Yar Adua may have been [mis]-advised to punish ASUU for confronting him, an ASUU alumnus. The plan may be to use the whip, hiding behind the NUC secretary and then come out ‘magnanimously’ on safe return, Amen, from Hospital in Saudi Arabia to ‘grant’, sakat, to ASUU by restoring 3 months of salaries? Those quoting ants and elephants should remember that the ant goes up the elephant’s nose, defeats and ants ALWAYS eat the elephant.
No doubt that this NUC circular will be remembered in Nigerian history as among the most irresponsible acts of any government, joining the murderous Decree 2 in infamy. Already it directly affects all students and their families, all lecturers and families, all trading in the minicities of tertiary institutions and contractors. This meanly applied NUC circular impacts negatively, on 40 million Fellow Nigerians.The malicious circular ignores the fact that ASUU members suffered personal and family hardship, borrowed or accessed money, to survive and pay bills using their expected ‘saved’ salary as collateral, now a phantom. Will government call EFCC against ‘failed’ loan taking ASUU lecturers. Has this NUC sinister circular got another agenda –to use the unpaid months money to kickstart the incriment and punish ASUU for confronting a government prepared to use circulars like the draconic decrees of the ‘Buhari, Babangida and Abacha Days’ –‘BAD Days’? Beyond that is there a hidden agenda –to ruin Id El kabir, already ruined, and Christmas and ‘A Happy New Year’ and create school fees problems for ASUU members, families and friends and all dependents of tertiary education–the camp followers. Could the NUC circular also be to expose, abandon, deny and then remove the NUC secretary in response to ‘popular demand’? His ‘mouth’ is tied.
If this is how government seeks to rebrand Nigeria it has failed and this NUC decree-sorry, circular, further brings Nigeria into disrepute. How do we fight this NUC decree? All Nigerians who want to see education progress and no further strikes should prevail through a landslide of text messages, emails, demonstrations and letters and comments to the press and on Face book, Youtube, show that this is one obnoxious circular too many and must be withdrawn immediately to prevent a further slide in the standard of education. When the law created by the devious-in-power ‘is an ass’, intelligent people must stand up and be counted. I stand up, and you too can stand up, against this stupid ‘No work- No pay’ assinine rule invented by a few, with a hidden evil agenda, hiding behind the toga of ‘nebulous government’. Who really is government? In reality the government which traditionally often does no discernable work on our roads, electricity, hospitals etc, should be the first to suffer ‘no results or work no pay’ using their own rule as the yardstick. Does government still have an agenda to destabilise education as in the past? Someone in government may have decided to restructure the university calendar to have students at home during 2010 election so they cannot vote.
As we do the CountdowNigeria@50 it is worth identifying the top 20 worst government decisions ever taken. We think of ‘government’ as a mass of intellectual well-meaning jelly brain power, chronically wise men and too few women, churning our pearls of political www, worldwide wisdom. Not so! In fact ‘government’ is just ‘one of us against us’, ‘man pass man’ too few making too many mistakes, who get under the skin of ‘those in power’ with a devious idea. We make the big mistake of thinking that all Government is good-intentioned. GOVERNMENT IS NOT GOD but just PEOPLE PLAYING GOD – WITH SOME DEVILISH RESULTS. Government is not always ‘good government’ and many decisions have not stood the test. In Nigeria we are running on the 10-25% rule with 75-90% failure everywhere. You cannot rebrand government incompetence and failure. You restrategise. The near zero power supply, the dead refineries, export and import of oil products, road Vs railways War, the neglect of medicine and education failure are good examples of ‘bad government policy’ and the incompetence and corruption that are killing Nigeria.
Draw up your list of TOP 20 WORST GOVERNMENT FAILED POLICIES. Meanwhile the senate and the house of representatives shamefully bicker when they are merely our servants. They demonstrate dishounourable and undistinguished actions. Let the green and red men and women look again at education. Is there a government anti-school library policy? How else do we explain the UNFORGIVABLE CRIME AGAINST OUR CHILDREN that our 70,000 SCHOOLS HAVE NO LIBRARIES? The lack of libraries is a key cause of the woeful 12-25% pass educational dismal performance and poor reading culture. Children need books in a country with no funds or electricity for computers. The green and red men and women should URGENTLY budget just N14,000,000,000 @ N200,000 per box for 70,000 SCHOOL LIBRARY BOXES and ENCYCLOPAEDIA PACKS as an EMERGENCY EDUCATION PURCHASE. A DICTIONARY AND ENCYCLOPAEDIA in every classroom. Classrooms without books are prison cells. CountdowNigeria@50-302 days continues. What CountdowNigeria celebration project are you doing in your school, office, community?