That an administration with a Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria will treat education with such disdain means educational qualification and titles are somehow overrated for effective delivery of quality leadership. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on an indefinite strike on Monday, November 5, 2018. According to the body among other requests, they want a full implementation of the Memorandum of Action (MOA) they signed with the federal government in October 2017. Several weeks after, the union is yet to end the strike thanks to the federal government’s refusal to reach common ground with the union.
The negotiating team under the leadership of Chris Ngige, Honorable Minister of Labour has performed abysmally. If he is not issuing threats of “no work, no pay” today, he will not be available for meeting tomorrow. While Ngige can be forgiven, such will not be extended to Professor Osinbajo. A former member of ASUU before his entrant into politics, Osinbajo should provide insight to both sides. The VP is aware of the rot in the education sector and the negative impact such has on the country’s development.
Majority of our elites including the Vice President have opted to send their wards to foreign Universities due to the poor standard of education in the country. Realizing this, why is it difficult to address this rot when they have access to power? Apart from this strike, the current administration has relegated education to the ground while it is busy with other rarely impactful scheme like the Tradermoni and the campaign for re-election. This is a red flag and it shows they are not so concerned about improving the rots in the sector.
Three years after, there is no known educational policy of this administration while in the same vein budgetary allocation for Education keeps dropping massively. Election is around the corner. While they are busy with campaigns, thousands of university students are home wasting away. We should do better!
Leave a reply