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IN retrospect, one begins to realise that the teachers in Nigerian public universities have never been subjected to as much humiliation as they currently undergo under the almighty manacle of chief priest Ngige. The events of eight months lock down of the public universities as a result of ASUU’s struggle for better infrastructure for the public universities and the official drama from the side of the government of the federation are an experience in melodrama towards a sorrowful dirge in respect of the death of all that is left as public university system in Nigeria But for the persistence on the part of ASUU, the public university system in Nigeria would have become a material for the archives, consequent upon the consistent negative efforts on the part of those that Nigerians had the misfortunes to find in the position of governance. From the inception of ASUU, it has been a story of how to make the university a place worthy to be sought after. Each of such efforts had been faced with tough resistance from those in government, who ordinarily should make it a duty to maintain an appreciable status of the universities, even if they cannot raise it to the world standard. Severally, ASUU had faced such ignominies and belittlements such as stoppage of salary, sack, being ordered to pack out of university quarters, and arrest and detention of leaders.
Many a time, after facing those hardships and some humiliation, ASUU would still be invited to the negotiation table for a sort of jaw-jaw that might lead to some agreements. Sometimes such agreements are partially honoured or with mere promises that they would be honoured. As bad as the often non-implementations of agreement with ASUU by the people in government may be, universities still enjoyed some sort of euphoria based on some hope that something good, no matter how little, would come to the universities and the members of the university communities. This history of half success, half humiliation, and disappointment culminated in the just-concluded strike. One outstanding thing about how this eight-month strike ended, all thanks to Minister Ngige, is the pathetically ominous future creatively cast for the public universities in Nigeria. It is lugubrious to know that a supposed learned person, who at least, passed through the four corners of a university would allow himself to be used to destroy the little that is left in the public universities and by so doing destroy the future of the teeming youth of Nigeria, including those yet unborn.
Alas, Ngige regales in what looks to him as a successful outing in clipping the wings of ASUU and whoever may believe in ASUU’s dream of a better future for the redemption of the public universities from their states of comatose. For those in government and outside of government who reason, with Ngige and his principal, that public universities should give way to the private universities in a poor nation as ours where the commonwealth has been cornered by a few politicians and their stooges, ASUU should be so demoralized that the members of the union would not survive the humiliation therefrom.
To achieve this feat, Ngige did all that is perniciously possible to thwart all positive efforts toward reaching a peaceful resolution of the disputes between ASUU and the government that he represented as a minister of labour. He antagonised anyone who tried to channel the path of peace. The Minister of Education who tried to solve the problem through Prof. Brigg’s team was frustrated. Ngige single-handedly rubbished the report submitted by respectable members of Brigg’s team through outbursts of lies and vituperations. When he failed in his attempt to blackmail the National President of ASUU as one who was mobilising the Nigerian youth against the ruling party in the next election, he shrewdly walked out of the meeting convened by Gbajabiamila, the Right Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the dashing of ASUU’s progressive pursuance of justice by the arm of government that should ordinarily be the last hope of the powerless.
Based on the rapprochement from the Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives and the respect for the rule of law, ASUU national executive called members from the strike to the resumption of academic activities. Immediately after the strike was called off or suspended, Ngige reinforced his arsenal against ASUU members and those who depend on them with starvation and stoppage of salaries. As if the non-receipt of eight months’ salary was not sufficiently painful, Ngige decided that the university dons should be converted to casual workers and their salaries should be prorated. In the midst of this, Ngige decided to pay the salaries of some members of the unions that he carved out of ASUU. This portrays the fact that Ngige’s ego could not be at rest because the university lecturers are resilient and refused to break down under the burden of not earning salaries for two-thirds of a year. When Ngige realises that the weapon of starvation has failed to achieve his objective goal, he now took to limitless abuses and grandstanding against the intellectuals.
All of these ,no doubt, will demoralise the lecturers. How do you expect these debased lecturers to display enthusiasm in their duty of knowledge production and dissemination? This goes with some debilitating consequences for students, their parents and the entire society. If the best way to destroy a society is to destroy its educational system, then, Nigeria under the watchful supervision of General Buhari, and Ngige, his protégé, is confronted with a fatal ailment. The question can be raised why, at all, those in power will intentionally do things that are capable of deadly hurting a system on which they superintend. Could it be that they do not apprehend the possible negative consequences or they just do not care about such consequences? This raises the question of Akrasia. The question is whether one can know what is wrong and decides to do what is wrong. This is a serious problem in Ethics or Moral philosophy. In this case, one may want to assume that those in power would not want to ply the destructive path they are on currently if they so understand it.
Considered differently, one may assume that Ngige is being propelled by the weakness of his will to do what he is doing currently because of some ominous motives, which, for anyone who cares to know, is detrimental to the overall interest of the nation. Either way, the citizens of Nigeria should not think that the problem that will result from this evil deed is solely that of the members of ASUU. These acts of omission and or commission from Ngige portend ominous consequences for the foundation of our tertiary education system.
- Salami is Professor of Philosophy at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
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