by Ayokunle Odekunle

The idle hand is the devil’s workshop. I can authoritatively tell you that Esu (devil) has engaged the students sufficiently. While many of the male students have ventured into crime, some now ‘set-p’ incessantly on twitter (Dont ask me what setting p means).

Last week Friday after downing two bottles of that very bitter-sweet drink in a dark bottle, I started seeing things in different perspectives. I could see the sun in the sky at around 11pm! I could see everywhere bright and wonderful just like it seemed after I heard God say “NEPA, bring the light” on creation day.

I managed to walk gingerly to my apartment. While on my way, a certain melody started playing in my head. No! It was not Skelewu or Sangalo. This one was more rhythmic. I tried so hard to figure out what the tune was but I couldn’t. Almost getting hysterical, I remembered!

When I was a kid in a small town called Oke-Ibadan in a big town called Ibadan, I remember having a big belly, big head and a small body frame (No! I did not have Kwashiokor). As I sat on my sofa that Friday night, I figured that small miserable looking boy (myself) in Primary 2. During Yoruba class, our teacher, Uncle Opalaba told us a story. He had some very crazy Ibadan marks and whenever he frowned, he reminded me of inverted commas. That is a story for another day.

Well, on this particular day, Uncle Opalaba came to class and shouted “Alooooo” and we echoed after him “alooooooooooooo”. He proceeded to tell us the following story. One which will always serve as a lesson and guide to people who overdo things.

There existed a certain tortoise and his wife, Yannibo. Tortoise was a very lazy guy. He would not work while his mates were working. He preferred to spend the whole day playing draft and day dreaming of riches and exotic lifestyle. Yannibo, tortoise’s wife came from a very wealthy family. Her father had a very large and expansive plot of land which everyone coveted.

Famine struck in the land. Hardworking farmers stored enough food to see their family through the perilous times of the famine. Tortoise had nothing to store as he did not even have a farmland. His family started getting sick out of hunger.

He decided to help his situation.

He started stealing from his Father-in-law’s farm. He would go in the middle of the night and then by 5am, he would just get home with food enough for his family. He kept on stealing without ceasing. Tortoise’s father-in-law noticed that someone who did not help him cultivate the farmland was reaping from it. He thus decided to get some OPC men to help him keep watch over his farmland and catch the culprit.

One night, Tortoise decided to get to ‘work’ again. He got to the farm and started harvesting. Lo and behold! he was apprehended by the OPC guys. His father-in-law rushed out from his hiding point and to his dismay, the thief who had been stealing from his land was his son-in-law, Tortoise. The same Tortoise he had given his beautiful and delectable daughter, Yannibo? He went livid with anger.

He decided to humiliate the worst possible way. He tied him at the pathway where everybody in the village will pass when going to the stream. When the whole village saw Tortoise tied to the stake when they were going to the stream, they enquired from his father-in-law as to what his offence was. When they heard what he had done, they all said “Tortoise, you should be ashamed of yourself, so you can even steal from your in-law” Blah blah blah. When people were coming back from the stream in the evening, they still met him tied there.

This continued for three days.

On the 4th day, Tortoise begged his father-in-law to cease his public humiliation of him. He told him “You have humiliated me enough. I have being the laughing stock of this village and its environs for the past four days. Everybody has been making snide remarks about me, someone even said my head is like that of a half-moon. Please, free me”.  The father-in-law refused.

On the evening of the 4th day when the villagers were coming from the stream, they saw Tortoise still tied to a stake and they were perplexed and flabbergasted. They took turns to pour invective on the father-in-law. They said “Have you not humiliated him enough? You are over-doing this thing o. Did Tortoise kill someone? You are a wicked and shameless man.”

So, the Tortoise ended up becoming the hero and his father-in-law the villain.

There, Mr. Opalaba ended his story. With his ‘mutilated’ face, he frowned and told us “Children, never you over-do things. When you overdo things, you lose out at the end.”

So, on my chair, after recollecting this story, last Friday, ASUU’s case came to my mind.

To me, their case is akin to that of Tortoise and his father-in-law. When this present strike started, they had the sympathy of all. They claimed they were fighting for better educational system (when instead they are fighting for their pockets). They shut the Universities and were blowing hot and cold on the pages of newspapers. Quite naturally, everybody blamed the government of the day. They blamed President Goodluck Jonathan for the strike (even when the history of the strike can be traced to the 1990s).

After much pleading, they refused to yield. They reiterated that government must meet 100 per cent of their demands. President Jonathan decided to meet with them. He became the first President to negotiate directly with ASUU. In a meeting that spanned almost 13 hours, he begged and cajoled them to get back to work at least “in the interest of the long suffering students”.  He promised to look into many of their rather outrageous demands.

After the meeting, hopes of the students were high. Everyone believed that after meeting with the President, ASUU would let common sense prevail.

Yorubas have a saying that an effigy that wants to disgrace himself would go to the Bar Beach and try to do some backstroke in the high seas. After meeting the President, ASUU refused to go back to work or to even ‘reason’ (Like Don Corleone would say).  In fact, this time around, they are saying they won’t get back to work UNTIL all their salary arrears are paid. You don’t get?! They want to be paid for the time they have been lazying around doing nothing.

Nonsense!

First of all, I have always seen a lot of Nigerian lecturers as greedy, lazy, unintelligent, self-serving bunch. They come to class unprepared and end up producing half-baked students. They take grants for research  from the Federal Government and would still refuse to go do quality research. They do copy and paste in their publications and intimidate their students by harassing them sexually and psychologically.

To me, they have no justification for persisting in this strike. For one, they are not fighting for the interests of their students. They are not going on strike so as to make our educational system enviable.They are going on strike because they believe it is their right to earn astronomically.

Furthermore, if they have the interests of their students at heart, they would not persist with this strike. You cannot love your students and then keep them at home doing nothing. The idle hand is the devil’s workshop. I can authoritatively tell you that Esu (devil) has engaged many students sufficiently. Many students have ventured into crime while others have become fathers – or fathers in escrow (they would be fathers in a few months from now). Many ladies have become ‘runz-babes’ while others have become mothers. These students’ are already rusty. Is that a way to treat people you are fighting for? No?

If you want to fight the government or you want them to raise your pay, find other ways to fight. Do not use your students future as ransom.

At the last count, some Universities have withdrawn from ASUU. UNILORIN does not belong. Some other schools are withdrawing. ASUU’s death knell will be when the very influential schools like University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University and UNILAG withdraw from the union.

ASUU are fast  losing the public opinion battle and they should know what that portends. The moment they call for another strike in the near future, people will not take them serious. Just like Tototise’s father-in-law, they have played to the gallery too much and people are now seeing them in negative light.

On a final note, I would implore ASUU President, Fagge to listen to ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers. He should play particular attention to these lines:

You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.

There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.

                          

Now Every gambler knows that the secret to surviving’

Is knowin’ what to throw away and knowing what to keep.

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Ayokunle Odekunle is an Associate in one of Nigeria’s leading commercial law firms. He tweets from @Oddy4real

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.