It was breaking news yesterday that a Consultant Psychiatrist, Comrade Chris Piwuna, has been elected as the new ASUU president for two years. The fact that he is a psychiatrist is unsettling to the political class, who, rather than injecting the required funds to improve our education sector, decide to steal money they don't need.
The post on the Facebook page of Mahmud Jega, a media aide
to President Tinubu during the campaign for the 2023 election, is an indication
that the news of the newly elected president is unsettling. He said Chris
should examine the heads of ASUU members for choosing a strike as an option to
make the government perform its responsibility to the university they willingly
established and are still establishing. Earlier today, someone was thanking his
Senator on Facebook for his bill to establish the Federal University of
Agriculture, Kura in Kano State.
Whose head needs to be checked by a psychiatrist? The one
fighting for the survival of public universities or the one who makes all the
promises, then gets to the office, but chooses to steal public funds, an amount
they can't spend for the rest of their life. In the 21st century, we have one
of the worst education and health sectors. Our people now go to Ghana and even
Niger and Sudan to study. Hunger is now a pride. One of them recently
acknowledged that they are aware we are hungry and called it "Hunger for
Change".
Who should we take to Prof Piwuna's psychiatric clinic for a
mental check? As people wonder about the cause of the massive and mindless
corruption in the country, as we watch public institutions collapse, they feel
that corruption within the political class may be a mental issue. According to
Punch of 16th December 2016, the first person who made this recommendation over
30 years ago was Prof. Adeoye Lambo, a famous psychiatrist and a former
Vice-Chairman of the World Health Organisation. He was astounded by the level
of corruption then. Well, the corruption was child's play then compared with
what we have now. Mrs. Farida Waziri, the Ex-EFCC boss, was reported to have
also recommended psychiatric examination for politicians for reason of grand
corruption that we see in our public life is a hackneyed recommendation. So,
the psychiatric test recommendation for politicians is not a new call.
Despite the fact that there is a justification for the
strike over the last 2 years, and the members have voted for it in a
referendum, the ASUU leadership has tried to apply diplomacy to avoid the
strike. That has produced a strike-free 2 years. They have been lobbying and
begging for the last 2 years. But what have academics got? Many can't fuel
their cars to go to work. So, what's the alternative to strike? Maybe instead
of strike to force the government to fund tertiary institutions they willingly
established, we should just manage what we have like that till they are no
longer manageable like our public primary schools? Please educate us on a
practical alternative to strike.
The Nigerian university system was once a beacon in West
Africa. If corruption is the reason why there are not enough funds to make our
universities what they used to be, who needs to queue in their Agbada to see a
psychiatrist? The people (political class) who have kept the universities in
their present state, or the people (ASUU) whose fight over the years gave our
universities a semblance of a university?
Irrespective of our political affiliation, I think we need
to set our sentiment and hatred for ASUU aside and sit back to reflect on the
state of education. As a former academic, a journalist, and an associate of the
political class, Mahmud Jega ought to join hands with ASUU to call on the
government to do the needful for the education sector. The North is the worst
hit, and coincidentally, Mahmoud Jega is from the North. We need public
education institutions at all levels that are good enough for their kids. As
the immediate past president of ASUU stated during the ASUU NDC in Benin a few
days ago, we cannot build a knowledge-based economy without a sound education
system.
We can't continue this way. The status quo is unsustainable.
The most powerful weapon against poverty, extremism, and ignorance is not the
bullet, but the book. The time to act is now. Nigeria must return to the
classroom - rebuild it, empower it, and invest in it—for therein lies the
salvation of the nation.
I don't like strikes, Mahmud Jega doesn't like strikes, but
I was left with no other options aside from a strike. And strike is the only
thing that has kept our universities functional to date. So, can Mahmud propose
an alternative that will work even better than strike?
The test I think we need to do for ASUU members is to find
out why they are fighting very hard to ensure that public universities do not
collapse. They could have chosen to be like our refinery workers who watch the
collapse of the refineries and earn a fat salary without refining a drop of
crude oil.
In conclusion, no matter the hatred, Mahmud Jega cannot
pretend that he does not understand the situation of our educational
institutions. I want to call on him to use his pen and influence to help
facilitate an education summit from this government. As Prof Attahiru Jega
proposed at ASUU NDC at the University of Benin a few days ago, the
stakeholders of the Nigerian project need to meet and discuss the sort of
tertiary education system they want and then agree on the funding model.
By
Prof. Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD.
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
aaabdelmalik@abu.edu.ng.
Copyright © Amoka 2025
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