Just My 2 Kobo: Looking Beyond The ASUU Strike

A while ago, the ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) Chairman, said in an interview that students didn't want them to call off the strike. In his words “Our students have come out to say they don't want us to call off the strike until the Federal Government answers us, because they don't want us to call off now and later we go back to strike again. So, we are heeding the advice of our students”. 

I wasn't present when the student conferred this message to him, so I have no clue if it is true or not. But one thing I know for sure is that the students just want to get done with school and be sure its over. I was a student once, I was lucky enough to experience a serious strike just once in my final year (2009) for three months. All I thought of after the first month of being happy to be away from school was, 'can ASUU call off the strike already so I can make it to law school in October', well I got to go to law school in April 2010.

The statement got me thinking about the whole strike, were the striking lecturers any different from the government they were striking against, were they even considerate of the feelings of the students who they had left sitting at home for months. I was listening to a programme called 'If Wishes Were Horses' while driving home a while back, the wish of more than half of the people that texted or called in was that ASUU should call the strike off, they complained that they were tired of sitting down at home doing nothing. Students begging to go back to school, now that’s a first!!! I really can't reconcile the reaction on this programme with the statement made by the ASUU chairman.

I am not going to go into the details of the strike or the politics surrounding it, I just want to look at our striking lecturers and see if they really have the interests of their students at heart or just the interest of their pockets. I remember numerous stories in school of female students who were failed repeatedly because they refused to sleep with the male lecturers. Stories of students who felt terrible after having to sleep with their lecturers just to pass, some of them go ahead to loose their sense of self worth. Stories of students who had to pay to get the pass that they ordinarily were entitled after working hard for it. Stories of students whose hard work were thrown into the dustbin, because the lecturer had to balance his sheet out, he would change marks of deserving students to lower grades to ensure he gave higher grades to the students he had slept with or collected money from. Stories of lecturers failing their students because they did not buy their hand outs. There are numerous stories of the atrocities of these lecturers, acts that left their students and ex-students lacking in both confidence and knowledge required to compete outside the four walls of the university.

The government not sticking to its part of the agreement is inexcusable, but the reports show that House of Assembly is willing to sign a supplementary budget if that would end the strike. I think they should try to come to a compromise with the government, that’s the essence of living in a civilised society, we should be willing to meet the other person half way. If really the lectures were interested in moving our education sector forward, they would be more interested in cleaning up the sector first from the inside, they would think about the students whose lives they destroy every day with their actions. Its probably because they know they students can't decide to strike against them that they keep on perpetrating these evil deeds.

The strike gets you thinking about the reason why we do what we do, for the love of it or just for the financial gains attached to it. For a position as serious as moulding the minds a nation, shouldn't it be a little more than the financial benefits. Nobody is saying the teachers should teach just for the love of it, but if they really loved what they have been opportuned to to be doing, they should be willing to come to a compromise with the government, not necessarily because of the government, but because of the minds they have been gifted with moulding. The minds they are moulding today are the minds of our future leaders, if they do their jobs right, the strikes would be a thing of the past, because when these minds get into power, they remember what they have been taught. But this strike only shows that a lot of our teachers went into teaching because all other career paths failed, not for the love of it. There are very few like my late Jurisprudence lecturer, Professor Oye Cukwurah, who I think went into teaching for the love of it.

The members of ASUU should be very aware that the patience of the general public is gradually wearing thin, if this strike drags on for too long they would loose the support of the general public, which they have had from the beginning.

But then again, what do I know; I just think the change we want to see in the educational sector should come from both the government and the lecturers, all the billions in the world would not change the education sector if the lecturers remain dirty.

Just my 2kobo: CHOICES by Adesuwa

CHOICES

By Adesuwa 

"I had to slap her joor! She was talking too much and I was boiling with anger...I didn't have a choice!"

"Doing runs was the only way I saw I could survive. I didn't have a choice.."

"I couldn’t have that child! Not while I was in school...I did what I had to do...I didn't see any other way..."

"I knew he had violent tendencies, but after six heartbreaks, I saw no other choice but to accept to marry him when he proposed!"

"I needed the job so badly; I knew the harassment would get out of hand. But how I for do?"

Dear reader, are these scenarios familiar? When it seems the only way out is the very way you would not advise your enemy to follow? And you just sigh and say, "Do I have a choice?"

We always have choices. Not to do something about an issue is a choice in  itself. The fact is not that there are no choices, but that we do not like the choices left in some situations.

Looking at the instances above, you could have walked away shaking with anger, because that slap could mar a friendship that meant so much...but if you don't stop to think, that choice wouldn’t surface.
You could have decided not to do runs, and probably not go to school, or do the high-class things, or lose a loved-one.
You could have that child and become a dropout or a single mum or face social stigma.
You could have refused to marry a man with anger issues; the worst that could happen is you marry late.
You could have stayed broke a little longer, and not take that job where your boss harasses you sexually everyday.

As ugly as these choices seem, they are choices. So we always have a choice.

We are always going to be faced with choices as long as we live, and the good thing is, you are solely responsible for the consequences...so whether good or bad its on you.

Can we try to choose our root choices wisely? Some would be painful no doubt...but soon enough you would face them in the nearest future.

Don't get me wrong; I am not trying to judge anyone. This goes out to all of us faced with one choice or the other or who have felt defeated as a result of bad choices we may have made. Rise up, dust yourself, review things and make good choices. Try all you can not to be conditioned by circumstances, stand apart from them and weigh things realistically and yes! For some you would need to have unshakeable faith. It is true that good choices take a lot of hard work and perseverance, but not to worry...no one loses for doing the right things, don't be deceived.

These are my thoughts this beautiful day. Be encouraged!