QUESTION FOR ASUU,NANS AND STUDENTS INTEREST BY EFA, D.A

Its no longer news that the strike action embarked upon by the lecturers has reached one hundred days,well kudos to them.

 Having experienced two previous strikes before this,i am forced to ask a serious question, who has the interest of the Nigerian students at heart, is it ASUU? The government? Or NANS?.

 I am not a member of Asuu, neither am I am member of the federal government delegation team and as such I cannot lay claim to being privy to what goes on behind closed doors when these two are meeting.I have drawn my judgement from experience and whatever information i find in newspapers and other mass media.

 I intend to keep this article as short and as straighforward as possible,thus I am going straight to the point.

 It is the duty of every government to provide adequate financial and material support for every sector of the economy including the education sector.The recent strike action embarked by ASUU is as a result of non payment of earned allowances over a period of years amounting to eighty-seven billion naira, and more funding for the education sector(appears to be just universities).The government on its part offered thirty billion for earned allowances and provided one hundred billion for construction work on our campuses but ASUU rejected the offer,In the latest rounds of negotiations the government offered six hundred billion naira,But our so called education messiah Dr Nasir Fagge and his cabinet said No! The amount is non negotiable,they should be paid eighty-seven billion for earned allowances and one point three trillion naira for developing our campuses. Now that is so wrong on every scale, it insults the senses.I want to believe this man has heard the word "budget",the government has a country to run and you cannot and as a matter of fact you should not give out that amount of money to an association that is holding the government to ransome by using students as a bargaining chip.

 The government has displayed enough goodwill by offering what they can,even if they can do better,it is now upto ASUU to reduce their demands and so far Dr Nasir Fagge has refused.collectively we have begun to question his motives-are they political,are they personal or are they truly for the good of all.

 Whenever the discussion of salaries arises these lecturers only compare their salaries with that of the members of the national assembly..why?.why don't they compare it with that of civil servants who make up a large portion of the country's work force?.how would they use the salaries of our national assembly members as comparisom? Yes! Their salaries are quite fat,but if they desire such salaries why not quit the classroom and go into politics? Do politicians go on strike and keep students at home? What would be of this country if civil servants go on strike for three months?, you can imagine the outcome for yourself.

 On a different note,I think it is in the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, that every child has the right to education but that is not enough,I suggest it be amended to every child has the right to education without unnecessary and unjustifiable interruptions.furthermore I suggest that the trade unions act be amended else these associations in a bid to do so called good would bring this country to ruin.

 I came across a blog some weeks back with photos of dilapidated buildings on our campuses and I quickly termed it "ASUU propaganda" because that is what it is.some of the photos where of broken down toilets,lecture halls,hostel rooms etc.here is my question,where goes all the monies generated by our universities? Is Nassir faggir telling us that because he pays taxes when his toilet breaks down he has to wait for the government to fix it up? Ofcourse some of these projects are for the government to handle.

 Now to the major question of the day,who truly has the interest of students at heart?

 We have a saying that when two elephants are fighting the grass suffers, And in this case the students are suffering.NANS has totally become a toothless association incapable of being heard,they are attempting to whisper when Asuu and the government are shouting,How do they intend to get heard?.NANS is saddled with the responsiblity of protecting students interest and they have failed woefully.

 Where is pastor tunde bakare? he claims he wants to save Nigeria but ofcourse no one has heard from him, where is FFK? He only seems to wade into unimportant issues or discuss past relationships.

It is time for our elderstatemen to wade in,The time for sitting on the fence has passed,They should man-up and take sides,This fiasco must end.

 To Asuu you would destroy the very society you claim to protect.Our students who should have been in the classrooms have either become nuisance to themselves or to their communities while young girls are getting pregnant.

Because of these frequent strikes,four year programmes have become longer,public universities have become traps rather than progressive enviromments.Can Asuu pay each student for the psychological trauma caused them as a result of the strike? Who is to say that if the money demanded by Asuu is made available(an amount bigger than the allocation of some states) that it would not be embezzled. I question the collective wisdom of Asuu and the government,Instead of channeling funds into existing universities there are busy opening up new ones.

 Our students pay huge sums of money as school fees in the state universities yet they are also at home,Can the state universities explain this in view of the fact that most of them have autonomy?.

 I wish for something akin to the Aba women protest, I passionately call on the women to help the students protest this injustice against them,they are your children.

 To the students, Dr Nasir Fagge has a job as a lecturer, he has a family and is settled,But you the student you are not! Whatever year you graduate you are then branded unqualified because one man refused to compromise and allow you return to school, He has his life and in a way he is trying to ruin yours.It is time for the students to either occupy Aso rock or ASUU rock or continue Occupying their parents housese till they get old,The choice is yours.GOD BLESS NIGERIA

                                                          EFA.D.A