NIGERIA’S PROTRACTED ASUU STRIKE & MATTERS ARISING

March 31, 2022

This is “No Bullshiting,” by Harry Agina.

Greetings, folks!

Yeah, I know, my list of subtitles is a long one. But, not to worry, the long list does not translate to a blog too long. And, I believe that you will enjoy it while it lasts.

I want to talk about protracted strike actions that have been destroying the education system in President Buhari’s Nigeria. I will start with the recent news item that forms the basis for this blog. Um huh, I want to lambast the insensitive motherfucker who is the subject of the news. A common headline in the media says, “Federal Government & ASUU Face-Off: Minister Walks Out On NANS, As Students Protest.”

ASUU is acronym for “Academic Staff Union of Universities,” and NANS stands for “National Association of Nigerian Students.” The news broke on March 1, 2022.

I have my peculiar perspective in the entire protracted ASUU strike actions matter. I address it under the general criminal impunity factor among Nigerian rulers in dealing with the people and affairs of Nigeria. This is not my first time to state that the impunity has gotten to unbelievable heights since President  Buhari assumed office in 2015. This time, the culprit was Buhari’s Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu. The gist is that a group of protesting students, members of NANS, visited the minister, and he angrily stormed out on them in the middle of the meeting. The students were protesting the continued face-off between the government and members of the “Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).” The face-off has paralyzed academic activities in the nation’s public universities since February 14, 2022, meeeeeeen!!!

So, the students took their protest against the disruption of their lives to the Education Minister. Guess what pissed Minister Adamu off to walk out on the students. Naah, don’t bother guessing, you can never guess right, especially if you’re not Nigerian. I’ll just tell ya. The motherfucking minister walked out on the students simply because they accused Nigerian leaders of willfully destroying Nigerian schools, while they send their own children abroad to acquire good education. Mind you, it was a generic accusation, not specifically directed at the minister. Any minister who is not mad, and in a democracy, would not dare to walk out on the students, even if they directed the accusation on him personally. But, this is Nigeria, where shit happens, and impunity reigns among many of the crooks who are ruling the country, meeeeeeen!!!

How about the veracity of the accusation? Of course, this rhetorical question is for my non-Nigerian readers; every Nigerian already knows the answer. And, yes, the accusation is a FACT! Note my emphasis on ‘fact.’ I cannot tell you that I have conducted an empirical research on this. Yet, just like every Nigerian, I know it as an absolute fact. Most critics of Nigeria’s deplorable education system do sing the same song all the time. Many, including I, have suggested a law that would bar Nigerian political leaders of the country from sending their wards to schools abroad.

It is safe to say that over 90 percent of the wards of the political leaders of Nigeria, the people in government, are in schools outside Africa. Common destinations include USA, the UK, and other European countries. And I mean from the wards of the presidents and their cabinet members, to the state governors and their cabinets. From the lawmakers, to the Local Government Chairmen, down to ordinary councilors.

The point here is that the protesting students simply echoed what all Nigerians already know. And, rather than show some sensitivity, even if he had to fake it, the motherfucking Education Minister walked out on the students. Nobody in his position in a sane society would dare to do that, not in a democracy! That’s the impunity that I am aways talking about, regarding Nigerian rulers, in our fucking demo-crazy (demonstration of craze). The minister was so disdainful to the students because he knew that nothing would happen to him. Nobody dared such impunity in Obasanjo’s regime. I know of a couple of members of Buhari’s cabinet who boasted that they can get away with anything that they do in their offices, and I have one instance for ya. Yes sir, yes ma’am!

A case came up in an Abuja High Court on March 31, 2022, which demonstrates my claim. It is a case between World Boxing Champion, Bash Ali of Nigeria (OON), and Buhari’s Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare. Bash sued the minister in November 2021. In a previous blog, I had the detail of the reason for the suit. It has to do with the saga of the systematic frustration of Bash Ali by Nigerian crooks in power. In particular, I talked about Minister Sunday Dare and his criminal impunity against Bash Ali, which started in 2021. You may want to read it, and you know the drill. It’s just a click away: https://nobullshiting.com/military-impunity-of-minister-sunday-dare-in-a-democracy/

The gist is that President Mohammadu Buhari had directed the minister to work with Bash on his scheduled Guinness World Record Boxing event in Nigeria. Minister Dare demanded personal dishonorable conditions from Bash, and Bash turned him down. In response to the rejection of his corruption, Dare, an ordinary appointee of Buhari, told Bash that, “The project will not see the light of day.” That was in 2021, and, Sunday Dare was right. The project has not seen the light of day since, ’til date, one year later, meeeeeeen!!!

I don’t want to castigate President  Buhari about this. But, there are things that have to be questioned by anybody with sense. I do have some sense, and I am discussing the matter, so, I ask some questions. For instance, how could a president issue a directive on a major project, and his appointee says that it ain’t gonno happen, huh? And, sure enough, one year down the line, it hasn’t happened.

          As I said, I really don’t want to castigate the president about this, because he already has enough of that from millions of Nigerians recently and currently. All hell currently seem to be breaking loose in Nigeria, especially in insecurity and terrible economy. So, the people are hungry, as well as scared. And, people in such double-whammy of fear and hunger do criticize the cause of the agony, Mr. President. So, I do feel for Mr. President now, yet, I can’t help but wonder, how come Mr. President never intervened in the Bash Ali matter? How come he didn’t follow up on his directive? We’re not talking about buying cookies and candies here. No sir, no ma’am! We’re talking about a major global event, which would bring honor and billions of dollars to the country!! Are you beginning to see my issue with impunity in Nigeria, and why it is so high in the present government? Minister Sunday Dare knew that Buhari would not bother if his directive was not complied with, meeeeeeeen!!!

Now, back to my primary subtopic, which is that Nigerian Maximum Rulers have systematically, willfully, destroyed Nigerian public schools, period! And, it is obvious that they have done so because their children are either schooling abroad, or in private schools in Nigeria. The private schools are priced far out of the reach of the average Nigerians, not to speak of studying abroad. The masses below average have completely forgotten any dream of going to school. And a motherfucking public servant, an appointed minister, had the audacity to walk out on students who were grieving their situation…only in Nigeria, meeeeeeen!!!

As at the date of this blog (March 31, 2022), the “face-off” between the federal government and ASUU has been on for 45 days, and counting. As a result, all public universities in the country were shut down, as ASUU and their allies embarked on the strike action. Mind you, they gave months of warning before the strike, but the government didn’t do a damn visible thing to call it off. So, the students who are bearing the brunt are protesting, and an insensitive motherfucker is more interested in his fucked-up ego. In a true democracy where there are repercussions for misbehavior, that dude would be out of a job within hours of that mad impunity, meeeeeeeeeeen!!!

Let’s quickly look at some implications of millions of students who are ‘wilding away’ their time when they are supposed to be in school. “An idle mind is a devil’s workshop,” they say. I would be insulting your intelligence, if I go on to explain how this relates to the millions of students who are presently idle in Nigeria. It is not outlandish to say that some of those students who have been idle for nearly two months have already committed some crimes around the nation. Who knows, maybe one, two, or more of them have even joined the terrorist groups that are currently terrorizing Nigeria. They might have done it in anger, because this fucked-up government has kept them out of school for too long since 2015. Or, they might have done it just because the government has made their minds idle, and the devil has gone to work in his workshop, as the idiom says.

Finally, let’s take another quick look at Nigeria’s budgeting for the education sector. It’s only 1.29 trillion for 2022. That’s less than 8 percent of the national budget. The average of the annual budget allocations to education in Nigeria in the past six years is just above 6 percent of the national budget (N3.5tr out of N55.3tr in six years). UNESCO’s recommendation for developing countries such as Nigeria is minimum of 26 percent of national budget for education every year. Several African countries get close to meeting this recommendation, and Nigeria is not one of them. I will only cite Ghana, Nigeria’s West African neighbor. Her allocation to education for 2022 is 23 percent of her national budget, just 3% short of UNESCO’s recommendation. The so-called giant of Africa, Nigeria, allocated less than 8 percent to education in the same 2022. Generally, Buhari’s education allocation has never gone beyond 7.9 percent of the national budget since 2015.

No wonder, everything in the nation’s Education System has progressively degenerated as the years went by. No wonder, ASUU insists that the education facilities, and education workers’ welfare, must be improved for better teaching and learning experience. No wonder, strike actions by ASUU has been recurrent, and frequently so, since Buhari became president. And, they always went on for several months each time. Buhari’s government refuses to honor any agreement that it reached with ASUU in all the gazillion conciliation meetings during the gazillion strike actions. Repeatedly, the motherfuckers in Education and Labor Ministries agreed to conciliation terms that they never intended to honor. Their evil intention each time was to deceive ASUU to go back to work. Each time that the motherfuckers achieved this, they habitually reneged on all the agreements that they had signed with ASUU, and with criminal impunity, meeeeeeen!!!

And now, we had an ego-tripping minister with criminal impunity, walking out on students who were grieving their plight. If that ain’t the height of bullshitting, then I’ve got no fucking idea what else is, meeeeeeeeeen!!!

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