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The state of Nigerian youths
Diogenes once
said: “The
foundation of every state is the education of its youth”.
Again, the Academic Staff Union of Universities has gone on strike and this means that academic work in Nigerian Universities has been suspended and university students have been forced to return to their parents, guardians and the streets — where they are made to join bad gangs to commit all manner of crimes.
Since the early 90s, it has become impossible to predict universities’ calendars due to incessant strikes by lecturers occasioned by the attitude of successive Nigerian governments which do not care about education and its role in the overall development of the country.
President Umaru Yar’Adua talks of the Seven-Point Agenda, one of which is human capital development, yet he supervises the rot in the education sector, through inadequate funding.
Some people had thought that being an academic, and the first Nigerian president with a university degree, Yar’Adua would give the education sector the needed attention. But it is rather unfortunate that things are going from bad to worse. The truth is, successive administrations — the military and the so-called civilian democracies — never really cared about what happened in the public education system. Why would they care? Their children and wards don’t attend Nigerian schools; not even the private schools in Nigeria.
Check out the National Assembly members, ministers and state governors whose children are of university age. You will discover that these politicians’ children are in the UK and American universities, where a parent-politician pays for each child the equivalent of his two years legitimate salary! Don’t ask me how he is able to finance three or more children in British and American universities at the same time.
Not even an agreement signed by public officials under Yar’Adua’s government could be honoured as the people who run the government lack honour and can’t even keep their promises — which is the reason for the current strike which commenced on Monday, June 22, 2009.
The lecturers are angry, and rightly so, over the poor funding of universities; lack of administrative autonomy of the universities; decaying academic infrastructure; lack of modern learning and teaching materials and poor remuneration at a time legislators get all manner of dodgy allowances.
I hope the government would wake up to its responsibility.
Tony Ishiekwene,
London, UK.
tonykwene@aol.com
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Between Oyo govt and destitutes
It was once reported that the Lagos State
government loaded the destitutes in the state
in a large lorry and dumped them in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
In response to this, one would have expected the Oyo State government to return these destitutes to Lagos, from where they were brought, but till date, nothing of such has happened.This is why there is a large number of destitutes in Ibadan.
Although, a commissioner in Oyo State at that time said the state government would not act in the way Lagos State government did, it should be realised that the large number of destitutes in Ibadan is not a healthy development. A visitor to the city will immediately notice them lining the major roads asking for alms.
My suggestion is that, if the state government cannot send them back to Lagos, it should go ahead to provide a place for them to stay, and take care of them .
Folasayo Olagunju,
Old Bodija,
Ibadan.
folagunju@yahoo.com
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Still on Yuguda and PDP
I commend the Bauchi State governor, Alhaji Isa
Yuguda, for joining the mainstream of Nigerian
politics.
While many people may fault his move to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his concern is, however, for the Bauchi people.
Although the Federal Government is bound to treat all the states of the federation equally, it is, however, noteworthy that since the PDP controls the Federal Government, it cannot leave a project in a PDP state undone and embark on a project in a non-PDP state.The aftermath will be that, the state will lose the assistance that it ought to have benefited from the Federal Government to other PDP states.
The people of Bauchi State, especially members of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), shouldn’t politicise this issue; it is for their good.
In a couple of months, we expect to get more of Federal Government’s assistance.
Alhaji Rukuba Abdul,
Bauchi,
Bauchi State.
allah4me@gmail.com
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