This is what happens when you overplay your hand, take everyone for granted, and fail to look at your own flaws. Now, even the media, which used to be ASUU's most loyal constituency, is beginning to question the union's antics.
The government will cave eventually, but I am convinced that ASUU will never be the same again, neither will its hackneyed internal narratives. Public attitude has definitely shifted decisively away from ASUU's self-serving propaganda. As the editorial indicates, many of the internal, previously concealed facts about the egregious shortcomings of ASUU members have finally seeped out and now being openly discussed in the public domain, on the street. Unlike in previous strikes, people are not just asking questions of the government but also of ASUU and its members; they're asking what ASUU is proposing to do or give in return for these perennial demands. These public narratives have now punctured the incestuous propaganda of ASUU, a deceptive discourse of altruism that ASUU used in the past to blackmail, confuse, and bludgeon potential critics.
I just have a feeling that whatever the outcome of this strike, the pendulum has swung in terms of the public wising up to the extremism and tyranny of ASUU. Folks now see ASUU rightly as part of the problem of higher education in Nigeria, since its members routinely do wrong by our students and are protected by an ASUU unwilling to broach or entertain any measures that will put the interests of students at the center of conversations about higher education. This shift may compel the union to finally do some soul searching and subject its members to some accountability metrics in return for whatever concession the government makes to them. We'll see.
On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 7:20 PM, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
--"ACADEMIC activities in public universities in the country have frozen following a strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities three weeks ago. At issue are unpaid "earned allowances" and inadequate funding of universities. The Federal Government had entered into an agreement with the union in 2009 to fulfil these obligations, resulting in ASUU suspending its three months' strike of that year. According to the lecturers, the government has observed the deal in the breach, forcing it to return to the trenches once again. But the latest, we dare say, is one strike too many. While the rot in the system is quite obvious and unacceptable, the academics, too, are as culpable as the government.""A total of 78 universities, comprising 40 federally owned and 38 belonging to the states, have been shut down as a result of the strike. Only the country's 50 privately-owned universities are in session. Frequent resort to strikes by ASUU to drive home its point is a strategy that no longer commands the respect of the public and even some academics.""[W]e see wisdom in Ben Nwabueze and Akinjide Osuntokun's denunciations of the ongoing strike. The two are distinguished professors who are familiar with our academic environment. "I am totally against the strike as it has destroyed the university system in Nigeria," says Osuntokun. So deep-rooted is the rot in the system that the University of Ibadan, which used to be among the very best in the Commonwealth, in the First Republic, is not even among the best 3,000 in the last global universities ranking by Webometrics, an online agency.""But the Nasir Fagge-led ASUU's search for change should begin from within, with self-examination. ASUU should feel concerned about sexual harassment of female students, selling of marks and intellectually barren handouts and plagiarism rampant in universities, which have badly corroded the system. These vices need to be stamped out. Funding alone is not the solution."- The Punch*applause* Brilliant editorial. A must read. If only ASUU would listen. There is a near mutiny out there against ASUU's shenanigans.*cycles away slowly*- IkhideStalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/Follow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
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