Host Christians are familiar with the popular handwriting on the wall story as recorded in the Bible in the book of Daniel chapter five. For the benefit of non-Christians, in that story, Belshazzar the king of Babylon and son of Nebuchadnezzar, invited thousands of officers to a great feast where wine and women flowed freely. While he was drinking, he was reminded of the gold and silver cups taken long before from the temple in Jerusalem during his father’s reign. He ordered that these sacred cups be brought to the feast, and when they arrived, he and his princes, wives, and concubines drank toasts from them to their gods.
While they were busy having their full of wine in the arms of their women they saw the finger of a man’s hand writing on the plaster of the wall opposite the lamp stand in the immaculate palace ballroom. Belshazzar saw the fingers as they wrote. The Bible recorded that his face blanched with fear, his drunken stupor was erased in a flash and his knees knocked together and his legs gave way beneath him. He immediately summoned his magicians and astrologers to interpret the strange writing but none could. It took Daniel, a man the Bible described as being “filled with divine knowledge and understanding” to decode the strange writing which in summary meant the king days were numbered and his kingdom divided between the Medes and Persians. It happened just the way the Bible said it would and that night Belshazzar was killed and Darius; the Mede entered the city and began reigning at the age of 62.
This event reminds me of the happenings in our country today where the progress of the country seem to be the least concern of our so called leaders. My interest here, as you might have guessed, is the tertiary education sector. Last week, undergraduates from the University of Ibadan (UI) blocked major streets in the ancient city calling on the Federal Government to resolve the current strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Prior to this, Polytechnic students poured into the street in Lagos and caused traffic snarl on Ikorodu road. Finally, the students appear to have woken from their slumber. Recollect that only last week I wrote how Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) challenged undergraduates at the CAMPUSLIFE workshop to join issue with the National Assembly and ensure their voices are heard on sectoral and national issues, it appears he spoke prophetically.
According to reports, no fewer than 500 students of polytechnics, universities, and even secondary school leavers, under the aegis of the Concerned Citizens Against Education Commercialization, (COSATEC) registered their displeasure at the Federal Government’s lackadaisical attitude towards ending the incessant strikes in the education sector.
In some of the reports I read, Owolade Oluwasijibomi, the Student Union President, Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti, was quoted telling the Federal Government that enough is enough. “We are tired of them playing with our future. We kept quiet about this for a while because we considered the fact that apart from the Federal Ministry of Education, there are other sectors involved. However, over 70 days have passed and the situation has not changed. They have taken our gentility for stupidity. And we want to let them know that until they meet the demands of our lecturers, we will continue to constitute a nuisance.”
While I will definitely not support the students turning themselves into a “nuisance”, it has, however, become glaring that one thing we must understand is that the history of our country and of the human race as a whole shows that things do not change without a struggle. In fact, Nigeria is what it is today because our people have refused to stand up against what is wrong; the corruption, rigging of election, the bare face impunity; and a myriad of other things just go on and on. These things are published in the newspapers daily and nothing happens, so one scandal gets bigger than the other and the country just goes on. The country is failing and everybody recognises that. But the big question on the lips of everyone is what do we do?
This dilemma between civility and struggle was what pushed the students out. They were joined by COSATEC which is pushing for dialogue with the striking unions in the education sector, and also advocating proper funding of the sector, democratic control as well as conducive learning environment for Nigerian students. The students want the authorities to read the handwriting on the wall and know that more protests should be expected as they promised that it is going to be a protracted struggle because they are becoming “ideologically mature” and are bent on ensuring that when they hit the streets again they would compel unemployed youths to join them. Any right thinking Nigerian should know that when the euphemism “unemployed youth” enters the lexicon, be sure that you will see area boys who would hijack the “struggle” for their own selfish benefits.
Since 1992 (21 years ago), Nigerians have got used to ASUU strike and the ominous manner in which the hopes and fates of our youths are spun in the roulette wheel of uncertainty. And in the last few years, Nigeria has witnessed an almost yearly occurrence of strikes in the academics. Yet, since the mid-80s, the number of academics in government has grown large enough to function well. Ironically, President Jonathan and his predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, emerged from the academics.
The notion that intellectuals can revolutionise governance is not new in the country. Right from when the late Anthony Ukpabi Asika left the ivory tower to join the government of General Yakubu Gowon, every succeeding government has found the citadel of learning attractive to poach for the regime’s intellectual direction. Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s government had erudite scholars such as Prof. Ihechukwu Madubuike and Prof. Ishaya Audu. Prof. Folorunsho Gambari and Dr. Onaolapo Soleye were to follow as intellectuals of the General Muhammadu Buhari regime.
General Ibrahim Babangida made the introduction of academics in major strata of the economy a policy thrust. When the Mass Mobilisation for Social Justice and Economic Recovery (MAMSER) Commission was launched in 1986, an academic, Professor Jerry Gana, was sought for as chairman. There was also Professor Molara Ogundipe in the commission. The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) had Professor Wole Soyinka as chairman. Professor Sam Oyovbaire was Minister of Information; the late Professor Olikoye Ransome Kuti was for Health, the late Prof. Aliyu Babatunde Fafunwa and Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, who in fact, initiated the Concert of Medium Power (G-15), was the External Affairs Minister.
However, in spite of these positions and influence of former ASUU members, education in the country is still stymied. It is quite strange to me that with these people in and out of government, it is still difficult for government to address the problems facing the sector. The reason for this is not farfetched, these former ASUU members, now on the other side, especially as politicians, ought to have critical roles to play in the repositioning of the country’s universities. It is unfortunate that immediately many of them leave the ivory tower, they become politicians and hustlers, who use the appendage of consultants to look for avenues to be part of the “cake sharing formula,” as they become tongue-in-cheek mouthpiece of government. Many of them don’t even bother going back to their constituency, academic, they see no reason why they should support ASUU or act as a buffer between ASUU and the government.
This notwithstanding, I see the present crisis beyond the prism of an ASUU, ASUP crises; it should provide us the opportunity of looking holistically at tertiary education. Why, for instance, would the government keep mum over ASUP strike and within days of the commencement of ASUU strike it called their officials to dialogue even though it has been deadlocked ever since?
By its action, the authorities are neglecting dangerous shifts in our education. Discrimination that governments and other employers exhibit in their treatment of graduates of universities and polytechnics is central to the issue. By inadvertently promoting this discrimination they are eroding the place of Polytechnics and colleges of education in manpower development in the country.
