ASUU on warning strike

WHY ARE YOU PART OF ASUU STRIKE-IS ASUU NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MALAISE IN THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR? ASUU, meaning ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES, is at it again doing what they know best-embarking on warning and indefinite strikes! This shameful charade and notorious trademark of a supposed responsible academic assemblage is worrisome to say the least. Truth is that many have come to the inevitable conclusion that ASUU has lost its relevance and social security rating as a sincere, altruistic pressure group. Men and women of enlightened conscience are profusely asking whether ASUU is still relevant in contemporary Nigeria. The mere mention of ASUU sends shock waves into the polity and reminds all and sundry of strike actions and the gathering of insensitive, uncaring and calous men and women of letters. If you compute the number of man hours, days and years lost to ASUU strike, the academic career and growth of uncountable number of young men and women destroyed or damaged by ASUU and its folly of strikes, no one will feel proud to be introduced as an ASUU member or official. ASUU is no longer a badge of honour. ASUU should stop pretending that it does not know that state owned universities that they take out on strike each time end up achieving nothing from the strike other than dislocating academic calender of innocent children in the state Universities. What is the pragmatic or utilitarian value of lecturers in state Universities belonging to ASUU when none of the agreements reached during national strikes are ever honoured at home leading to unending demand and strikes by the local unions for payment of arrears from the state Governments? Apart from our successive governments that pay lip service to University education, ASUU should be blamed squarely for the avoidable decline in our educational standard because academics and members of ASUU have abandoned their core mandate of research and teaching for other frivolities in the bid to take the wig to town. Is it true that we have more partisan politicians in ASUU leadership than in the INEC registered political parties? Nationally and locally, ASUU leadership missed it when they went for huge take home pay in lieu of good conditions of service. Until the emergence of excessive unionism in the serene academic environment, universities used to be reputed for orderly academic calendar and quality outputs. University graduates used to be a toast of all having been certified worthy in character and learning. Now what do we have as university graduates? Today all these stabilising perks seem to be lost courtesy of ASUU strikes and our convoluted academic calender and curriculum. University lecturers used to live in furnished staff quarters, lecturers' children used to attend staff schools-primary, secondary and tertiary. There used to be staff buses, free medicals, car loans, research grants, scholarships, bursaries, subsidised rates or free schemes for peer reviewed publications, good pension schemes etc. What happened to all those? Why would a university lecturer need hundreds of thousands of Naira as monthly salary if he or she has great conditions of service? It is now clear that ASUU Leadership put the cart before the horse. The tail is now waging the dog! Now the take home pay is not enough to take ASUU members home. ASUU should be roundly blamed because ASUU commercialized our education or supervised its bastardisation. Is it for nothing that ASUU has no code of conduct for University lecturers hence sorting, grades for cash, sex for grades, sexual harassment, cultism, academic victimisation (push him down (PHD) syndrome) of colleagues and other variants of ignominious aberrant escapades by lecturers have become the norm other than the exception. Please when last did ASUU call out or take a swipe on their colleagues for dragging the educational sector to the mud? ASUU has no opinion on all these no matter the defeaning level of public outcry-see no evil, hear no evil and do all evil kind of scenario. ASUU operatives in NUC leadership have corruptly proliferated both state owned and private universities to an embarrassing level. Once you have loads of cash and pave your way in the bureaucracy, no matter who you are and how you are what you are, you are sure to get a licence to run a University. University education is now cash and carry-Commerce...commerce....commerce- courtesy of NUC! With these alarming developments, our universities are now glorified secondary schools not more than neighbourhood schools run according to the commercial whims and caprices of the proprietors. Courtesy of NUC and ASUU, our universities are no more seen as citadels of learning and melting pot of ideas for character moulding and research. ASUU strike no longer holds excitement in the polity. The right to free and qualitative education is still a matter of political conjecture and tokenism but ASUU is standing aloof and watching the National Assembly embark on constitutional amendment to enjoy immunity for their members. What a shame? With PMB as the new Sheriff in town, the fight against corruption or is it against some corrupt people is raging nationally and ASUU has no opinion for or against. Why? Is it because ASUU itself is a cesspool of corruption? ASUU has no moral authority to embark on strike....Do not say I told you...but count me out of the unproductive strike! Prof Obiaraeri N.O.