On condemnation of ASUU

I am not a university love you, but I have family and friends who are lecturers. I have also kept in touch with my department at the University of Ibadan after I left 31 years ago. Some of my classmates are professors in that same Premier University.

The long years of military regime has had a docile and de-motivating effect on our populace. Many people now have low self-esteem and believe nothing good can come out of Nigeria. From my experience over the past three decades in industries spanning Manufacturing (UAC) , Banking (Access Bank) , Oil and Gas (Unipetrol/Oando) and others , I have interacted with Nigerians and Foreign graduates and I have not found our local graduates to be inferior but in knowledge and skills.

Like I said, I left the University of Ibadan 30 years ago, some of the lecturers who taught me are still in service. So, when we say education standard has fallen, are we saying even those lectures who were there when education was good have dropped the ball? I am not holding forte for ASUU , ASUU is more than capable to make its case.

We have a democracy that is akin to a dictatorship!  ASUU in the last 20 years of civilian rule has been the only progressive voice fighting for the masses.

The records are there, it was negotiation by ASUU that led to the creation of the Educational Trust Fund . It ensures companies pay 2.5 percent of their Profit to the ETF.  Go to all our institution of higher learning today, the capital projects are all funded by ETF.

This is in a country where FG complain of no money but spend N20B to build EFCC HQ, N39B to renovate National Assembly Complex, where ASO Rock Clinic gets N3B capital budget in a year while all the nations University Teaching Hospital get less than that combined!!!

Yes ASUU should be sacked “since half of their students failed …….” When we finish sacking take lecturers we can replace them with Dino Melaye and Fulani herdsmen!!!

The University of Lagos produced about 150 doctors yearly and UCH about 300.  By the time these young doctors finish House Job (in fact many cannot do House Jobs because there are not enough spaces. ASUU probably caused this too) more half of the House Officers have relocated to America or Europe .

By the end of NYSC nearly 70 per cent of our Medical graduates have left. You may do your check from Year 2000 to 2019; some sets have over 80 per cent of their Medical graduates working abroad.

Yet ASUU has failed, our universities are useless. Our medical graduates sit for foreign exams like PLAB and USMLE and come out in flying colours.

Instead of us to praise our longsuffering and patriotic lecturers and university administrators, we join an underperforming government to castigate them. The question to ask at this moment is what have I given back to my Alma Mater (both secondary and university)?

Our people say “Orisa bi o le gbemi , se mi bi o se ba mi”. If we cannot join ASUU to pressurise government to equip and fund our Universities, we can as well stop accusing ASUU without verifiable facts.

Laitan Odukoya

Oyo state

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